What to watch for - Day 13.

It’s official. I’m a little depressed now that gymnastics is over. That and that I can only count the number of days left in the Olympics on one hand. However, there are still plenty of medals to be handed out and Team USA has several guaranteed along with some great chances at others today.

The U.S. is guaranteed both the gold and the silver in the beach volleyball final. Will it be two-time Olympic champion Misty May-Treanor and Carrie Walsh Jennings? Or the other duo in the red, white and blue in Jen Kessy and April Ross? The champions looked great last night in a hard match against the Chinese team and proved that they have a lot of fight left in them. They’ve still never lost a match and have only lost one set. However, Kessy and Ross defeated the Brazilians, who were the number one ranked team, in the semifinals to reach this game, which proves they have a lot of talent as well. It should be an amazing match and the best thing is that no matter what happens the U.S. wins!

The marquee event, in my opinion, on the track today is the women’s 200m dash. American Allyson Felix has been runner up at both the last Olympics and desperately wants to win gold. Felix has won three world titles in the event but never the Olympic title. However, she still has the two-time Olympic champion to compete against in Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell-Brown. The race is stacked with talent with the world’s fastest woman – Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce (I love that she runs with a bow in her hair), Sanya Richards-Ross and Carmelita Jeter. It should be one exciting race.

Americans Jason Richardson and Aries Merritt have good shots to win the men’s 110m hurdles tonight. Richardson was the 2011 world champion and Merritt won the 2012 world indoor championships in the 60m hurdles. They will have to fight against the reigning champion and world record holder Dayron Robles of Cuba.

The third big race of the day is in the women’s 400m hurdles. Russia’s Natalya Antyukh and Czech Republic’s Zuzana Hejnova turned in the top qualifying times, while Team USA qualified all three runners in T’erea Brown, Lashinda Demus and Georganne Moline.

Over on the field, the women’s long jump will be contested. American Brittany Reese is the only track and field athlete to win her event at all four world championships since Beijing and looks to win the first gold for the U.S. since Jackie Joyner-Kersee in 1988.

The competition for the best male athlete in the world begins today with the decathlon. The USA’s Ashton Eaton set the world record in the event in the Olympic trials and will be looking to continue that momentum into the five of 10 events happening today. The other American to watch is two-time world champion and Texas Longhorn Trey Hardee. The bronze medalist from 2008, Cuba’s Leonel Suarez, is also expected to contend for a medal.

We have five more days to pull ahead of the Chinese in the overall medal count. I thought they’d be done with most their big events by now (Dong Dong can only win trampoline once), but they continue to keep reeling those medals in. The U.S. has won the overall medal count the past two Olympic games and three of the last four.