We're more than halfway through the Rio Olympics, but the action is far from the point of winding down. Monday's slate includes competition in 20 different sports with nine of those awarding medals.Five gold medals will be given out in track and field, including in the women's 400-meter dash, while the second-to-last day of gymnastics features three more individual finals, with Americans Simone Biles and Laurie Hernandez the favorites to win the women's balance beam competition.Also on tap are elimination rounds in sports such as beach volleyball, field hockey and water polo and the completion of pool play in men's indoor volleyball, where Team USA needs to win to stay alive.Here's a rundown of the biggest events and storylines to keep an eye on during Day 10 in Brazil:Track and FieldAmerican Allyson Felix had no problem winning her semifinal heat in the women's 400-meter dash on Sunday, her time of 49.67 seconds an impressive 1.57 seconds better than what she ran in Saturday's preliminaries. It was also 0.16 faster than Jamaica's Shericka Jackson, one of her main competitors for gold on Monday.Felix is already a gold medalist in the 200-meter dash from the 2012 London Games, but since then, she's focused on transitioning to the longer race. She won the world championship in 2015 in Beijing, beating Jackson and Shaunae Miller of the Bahamas."Im just a competitor. I love to win. I love a challenge," Felix told Yahoo Sports' Sam Cooper on Saturday. "Im excited to get outside of my comfort zone to take on this new event in the 400 and see where it takes me."Miller qualified fourth on Sunday, with American Natasha Hastings one-hundredth of a second ahead of her. Another American, Phyllis Francis, came in with the fifth-best time from the semifinals.Of the four other track and field finals set for Monday, pole vaulter Sam Kendricks might have the best chance at challenging for gold. He was one of nine athletes to clear 5.7 meters (which is roughly 18'8), but he was the only one who didn't have a miss along the way. However, he'll have to go much higher to contend with reigning gold medalist Renaud Lavillenie of France.Lavillenie set the Olympic record of 5.97 meters in 2012, and in 2014, he broke Sergey Bubka's 1994 world record by clearing 6.16 meters.Other Americans battling for medals Sunday include Boris Berian and Clayton Murphy in the men's 800-meter run, American record holder Emma Coburn in the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase finals and Amber Campbell in the women's hammer throw. GymnasticsOn Sunday, Simone Biles became the first American woman to win gold in the vault and the first woman to ever claim three gold meals in one Olympics, but she's far from done. The 19-year-old has two more chances at gold and looks to be in great shape to get her fourth in Monday's balance beam finals.If someone is going to beat her, though, it'll be a teammate. Biles scored 15.633 on Aug. 7 while Laurie Hernandez wasn't far behind at 15.366. The next-closest competitors are Brazil's Flavia Saraiva and Sanne Wevers of the Netherlands, both of whom scored above 15 in qualification.American Aly Raisman won bronze in this event in 2012 and tied with Gabby Douglas for the seventh-best score in qualification, but only two gymnasts from each country can advance to the finals.Hernandez's best discipline is the beam, as the 16-year-old had the best scores of any Team USA member during the U.S. Olympic Trials in July. So far in Rio, though, Biles has bested Hernandez each time. Marathon SwimmingMuch has been made about the quality of the water in and around Rio, particularly off the coast and in the Guanabara Bay, with concerns about sewage and other debris floating around possibly impacting Olympic events that take place off land.Nowhere was this more potentially problematic than with the open-water swimming events, which begin Monday with the women's 10-kilometer race.But apparently the biggest worry for the swimmers themselves is how strong the waves might be, according to Michelle Weber of South Africa."I swallowed quite a bit of water," Weber, who recently tested the course, told USA Today's Dan Wolken."The (pollution issues) are more in the harbor, but Ive taken my antibiotics and everything like that."Weber is one of 26 entrants in the competition, a field that includes defending gold medalist Eva Risztov of Hungary and 2012 silver medalist Haley Anderson of the United States. Risztov beat Anderson by 0.4 seconds in that race, but since then, the 24-year-old Anderson has won the last two world championships in the five-kilometer race.Beach VolleyballPhil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena have won eight of nine sets so far in winning their pool and then breezing past their first opponent in the knockout stage. But now comes a real challenge in the form of the top seeds, which just happen to be from the Olympic host country.Alison Cerutti and Bruno Oscar Schmidt ended up finishing in a three-way tie for first in their pool but were ranked second based on tiebreakers, putting them on the same side of the bracket as Dalhausser and Lucena. Cerutti was one half of the Brazilian team that beat Dalhausser and Todd Rogers for gold in 2012. Field HockeyComing off its first loss of the Olympicsa 2-1 setback to Great Britain on Saturday that resulted in a second-place finish in pool playthe U.S. women's team enters elimination play needing two more wins to lock up its first medal since taking bronze in 1984. Before that can happen, though, the Americans take on Germany in the quarterfinals.Germany went 2-2-1 in pool play and finished third, scoring only six goals in the process. The U.S. scored 14 in its five games with at least two in every contest other than the loss to Great Britain. American Katie Bam has five goals all her own, leading all scorers in Rio. Indoor VolleyballIt's been a frustrating and underachieving performance to this point for the United States men's indoor volleyball team, which came into the Olympics as the No. 5 team in the world and the reigning World Cup champions. But a shocking 3-0 loss to Canada to open pool play was followed by a 3-1 loss to Italy, putting the Americans in must-win mode ever since.That continues with Monday's pool-play finale against winless Mexico. The U.S. will move on to the quarterfinals with a win and can finish as high as second in the pool. But a loss would result in elimination, unless it is a 3-2 loss (teams are awarded one point for a loss in five sets) along with a Brazil-France match that lasts under five sets.Team USA hasn't failed to advance from pool play since the 2000 Sydney Games. Water PoloThe U.S. women's water polo team dominated its pool, winning all three matches by at least five, and a trip to the semifinals seems like a lock. The quarterfinal matchup is against Brazil, which will have a crowd advantage, but that didn't help it during pool play when it went 0-3 and lost by a combined 20 goals.A win Monday will set up a semifinal clash with either Australia, which won bronze in 2012, or Hungary, whom Team USA beat 11-6 on Saturday. The Americans are defending Olympic gold medalists. Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.
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