What about world and Olympic records? I think there will be fewer than we are used to from the last Olympics, primarily due to the suit change from the super suits to more mortal versions (not going too far out on a limb by saying that!).
Share your picks with all of us! Who do you think will be going home with Olympic gold, silver and bronze medals?
These are some of the top swimmers to watch at the 2012 London Olympic Games. After the swimmers' names are their best times for 2012.
Top Swimmers - Men's Olympic Swimming Events
- 50 Free
Cesar Cielo - BRA 21.38
Cullen Jones - USA 21.59
Anthony Ervin - USA 21.60
Bruno Fratus - BRA 21.70
James Magnussen - AUS 21.74
- 100 Free
James Magnussen - AUS 47.10
James Roberts - AUS 47.63
Yannick Angel - FRA 48.02
Nathan Adrian - USA 48.10
Nikita Lobintsev - RUS 48.21
- 200 Free
Yannick Angel - FRA 1:44.42
Ryan Lochte - USA 1:45.75
Takeshi Matsuda - JPN 1:45.96
Yang Sun - CHN 1:46.05
Tae Hwan Park - KOR 1:46.09
- 400 Free
Yang Sun - CHN 3:42.31
Tae Hwan Park - KOR 3:44.22
Yunqi Li - CHN 3:45.49
Yannick Angel - FRA 3:46.14
David McKeon - AUS 3:46.36
- 1500 Free
Yang Sun - CHN 14:42.30
Tae Hwan Park - KOR 14:47.38
Gregorio Paltrinieri - ITA 14:48.92
Andrew Gemmell - USA 14:52.19
Connor Jaeger - USA 14:52.51
- 100 Back
Matt Grevers - USA 52.08
Camille Lacourt - FRA 52.75
Nick Thoman - USA 52.86
Ryosuke Irie - JPN 52.91
Liam Tancock - GBR 53.16
- 200 Back
Ryosuke Irie - JPN 1:54.02
Ryan Lochte - USA 1:54.54
Tyler Clary - USA 1:54.88
Radodlaw Kawecki - POL 1:55.28
Jan-Philip Glania - GER 1:55.87
- 100 Breast
Kosuke Kitajima - JPN 58.90
Ryo Tateishi - JPN 59.60
Felipe Franca da Silva - BRA 59.63
Brendan Hansen - USA 59.68
Cameron van der Burgh - RSA 59.73
- 200 Breast
Kosuke Kitajima - JPN 2:08.00
Ryo Tateishi - JPN 2:08.17
Daniel Gyurta - HUN 2:08.60
Marco Koch - GER 2:08.74
Scott Weltz - USA 2:09.01
- 100 Fly
Michael Phelps - USA 51.14
Tyler McGill - USA 51.32
Milorad Cavic - SRB 51.45
Christopher Wright - AUS 51.67
Laszlo Cseh - HUN 51.77
- 200 Fly
Michael Phelps - USA 1:53.65
Takeshi Matsuda - JPN 1:54.01
Nick D'Arcy - AUS 1:54.71
Laszlo Cseh - HUN 1:54.95
Tyler Clary - USA 1:55.12
- 200 IM
Micheal Phelps - USA 1:54.84
Ryan Lochte - USA 1:54.93
Laszlo Cseh - HUN 1:56.66
Thiago Pereira - BRA 1:57.11
Markus Deibler - GER 1:57.82
- 400 IM
Ryan Lochte - USA 4:07.06
Michael Phelps - USA 4:07.89
Kosuke Hagino - JPN 4:10.26
Yuya Horihata - JPN 4:10.52
Thomas Fraser-Holmes - AUS 4:11.81
- 4x100 Free Relay
Australia 3:11.5 (Magnussen, Robers, Targett, Sullivan)
Russia 3:13.3 (Lobintsev, Izotov, Grechin, Morozov)
France 3:13.4 (Agnel, Gilot, Leveaux, Bernard)
United States 3:13.5 (Adrian, Jones, Feigen, Phelps)
Brazil 3:15.2 (Cielo, Chierighi, Fratus, Oliveira)
Germany 3:15.5 (di Carli, Fildebrandt, Deibler, Starke)
2011 World Champs:
AUS 3:11.0
FRA 3:11.1
USA 3:11.9
ITA 3:12.3
RUS 3:12.9
RSA 3:13.3
- 4x200 Free Relay
United States 7:04.6 (Phelps, Lochte, Berens, Dwyer)
France 7:04.8 (Agnel, Leveaux, Mallet, Lefert)
Australia 7:09.1 (Fraser-Holmes, Monk, Napoleon, McKeon)
Germany 7:09.2 (Biedermann, Rapp, Colupae, Wallburger)
Russia 7:09.3 (Izotov, Lagunov, Lobuzov, Lobintse)
China 7:10.4 (Sun, Hao, Li, Lu)
Great Britain 7:10.5 (Renwick, Lloyd, Bale, Carry)
2011 World Champs:
USA 7:02.6
FRA 7:04.8
CHN 7:05.6
GER 7:08.3
AUS 7:08.4
JPN 7:10.4
- 4x100 Medley Relay
United States 3:31.0 (Grevers, Hansen, Phelps, Adrian)
Australia 3:32.4 (Stoeckel, Sprenger, Wright, Magnussen)
Japan 3:33.0 (Irie, Kitajima, Fujii, Shioura)
Brazil 3:34.0 (Pereira, Franca da Silva, Almeida, Cielo)
France 3:34.1 (Lacourt, Perez Dortona, Lefert, Agnel)
Great Britain 3:34.2 (Tancock, Sliwinski, Rock, Turner)
2011 World Champs:
USA 3:32.0
AUS 3:32.2
GER 3:32.6
JPN 3:32.8
NED 3:34.1
CAN 3:35.3
- Open Water 10km
Thomas Lurz - GER
Spyridon Gianniotis - GRE
Ky Hurst - AUS
Top Swimmers - Women's Olympic Swimming Events
- 50 Free
Ranomi Kromowidjojo - NED 24.10
Francesca Halsall - GBR 24.13
Marleen Veldhuis - NED 24.32
Britta Steffen - GER 24.37
Cate Campbell - AUS 24.44
Jessica Hardy - USA 24.50
- 100 Free
Ranomi Kromowidjojo - NED 52.75
Sarah Sjostrom - SWE 53.29
Francesca Halsall - GBR 53.57
Britta Steffen GER - 53.65
Yi Tang - CHN 53.71
Melanie Schlanger - AUS 53.74
- 200 Free
Allison Schmitt - USA 1:54.40
Camille Muffat - FRA 1:54.66
Sarah Sjostrom - SWE 1:55.23
Bronte Barratt - AUS 1:55.99
Kylie Palmer - AUS 1:56.04
Federica Pellegrini - ITA 1:56.32
- 400 Free
Camille Muffat - FRA 4:01.13
Rebecca Adlington - GBR 4:02.35
Allison Schmitt - USA 4:02.84
Kylie Palmer - AUS 4:03.40
Chloe Sutton - USA 4:04.18
Coralie Balmy - FRA 4:05.31
- 800 Free
Rebecca Adlington - GBR 8:18.54
Kathleen Ledecky - USA 8:19.78
Kate Ziegler - USA 8:21.87
Lotte Friis - DEN 8:22.10
Xin Xin - CHN 8:22.76
Mireia Belmonte - ESP 8:24.23
- 100 Back
Missy Franklin - USA 58.85
Anastasia Zueva - RUS 58.97
Aya Terakawa - JPN 59.08
Rachel Bootsma - USA 59.10
Emily Seebohm - AUS 59.28
Belinda Hocking - AUS 59.39
- 200 Back
Missy Franklin - USA 2:06.12
Anastasia Zueva - RUS 2:06.59
Belinda Hocking - AUS 2:06.68
Elizabeth Beisel - USA 2:07.58
Aya Terakawa - JPN 2:07.73
Meagen Nay - AUS 2:07.83
- 100 Breast
Rebecca Soni - USA 1:05.82
Breeja Larson - USA 1:05.92
Satomi Suzuki - JPN 1:06.80
Leiston Pickett - AUS 1:06.88
Yulia Efimova - RUS 1:06.92
Jennie Johansson - SWE 1:07.10
- 200 Breast
Rebecca Soni - USA 2:21.13
Satomi Suzuki - JPN 2:22.99
Micah Lawrence - USA 2:23.03
Kanako Watanabe - JPN 2:23.56
Tera van Beilen - CAN 2:24.03
Anastasia Chaun - RUS 2:24.13
- 100 Fly
Dana Vollmer - USA 56.42
Sarah Sjostrom - SWE 56.79
Ellen Gandy - GBR 57.25
Ying Lu - CHN 57.48
Francesca Halsall - GBR 57.56
Claire Donahue - USA 57.57
- 200 Fly
Natsumi Hoshi - JPN 2:04.69
Liuyang Jiao - CHN 2:05.18
Jie Gong - CHN 2:05.38
Ellen Gandy - GBR 2:05.95
Jemma Lowe - GBR 2:06.37
Cammile Adams - USA 2:06.52
- 200 IM
Stephanie Rice - AUS 2:09.38
Siwen Ye - CHN 2:09.43
Caitlin Leverenz - USA 2:09.71
Alicia Coutts - AUS 2:09.83
Mireia Belmonte - ESP 2:10.53
Ariana Kukors - USA 2:10.76
- 400 IM
Elizabeth Beisel - USA 4:31.74
Hannah Miley - GBR 4:32.67
Katinka Hosszu - HUN 4:32.83
Stephanie Rice - AUS 4:33.45
Mireia Belmonte - ESP 4:33.91
Caitlin Leverenz - USA 4:34.48
- 4x100 Free Relay
Netherlands 3:35.3 (Kromowidjojo, Veldhuis, Heemskerk, Dekker)
Australia 3:35.7 (Schlanger, Campbell, Elmslie, Kukla)
United States 3:36.2 (Schmitt, Hardy, Weir, Franklin)
Great Britain 3:37.2 (Halsall, Smith, Turner, Lloyd)
Sweden 3:37.8 (Sjostrom, Alshammar, Coleman, Marko-Varga)
Germany 3:38.0 (Steffen, Schreiber, Vitting, Lippok)
Japan 3:38.5 (Ueda, Matsumoto, Uchida, Ito)
2011 World Champs:
NED 3:33.9
USA 3:34.4
GER 3:36.0
CHN 3:36.3
AUS 3:36.7
CAN 3:38.4
- 4x200 Free Relay
Australia 7:46.0 (Barratt, Palmer, Schlanger, Elmslie)
United States 7:46.2 (Schmitt, Franklin, Vollmer, Perdue)
France 7:49.3 (Muffat, Balmy, Etienne, Bonnet)
China 7:50.9 (Wang, Tang, Song, Zhu)
Canada 7:52.1 (Jardin, Cheverton, MacLean, Wilkinson)
Great Britain 7:52.2 (McClatchey, Turner, Faulkner, Adlington)
2011 World Champs:
USA 7:46.1
AUS 7:47.4
CHN 7:47.6
CAN 7:52.0
HUN 7:52.1
FRA 7:52.2
- 4x100 Medley Relay
United States 3:55.0 (Franklin, Soni, Vollmer, Schmitt)
Australia 3:57.5 (Seebohm, Pickett, Coutts, Schlanger)
Japan 3:57.7 (Terakawa, Suzuki, Kato, Ueda)
China 3:58.5 (Fu, Sun, Lu, Tang)
Great Britain 3:58.8 (Simmonds, O'Connor, Gandy, Halsall)
Germany 3:59.4 (Mensing, Ruhnau, Wenk, Steffen)
2011 World Champs:
USA 3:52.3
CHN 3:55.6
AUS 3:57.1
RUS 3:57.3
JPN 3:57.8
GBR 3:59.6
- Open Water 10km
Kerri-Anne Payne - GBR
Angela Maurer - GER
Melissa Gorman - AUS