2020 Tokyo Summer Olympic Games
- When: Pool swimming: Saturday, July 24 – Sunday, August 1, 2021
- Open Water swimming: Wednesday, August 4 – Thursday, August 5, 2021
- Where: Olympic Aquatics Centre / Tokyo, Japan
- Heats: 7 PM / Semifinals & Finals: 10:30 AM (Local time)
- Full aquatics schedule
- SwimSwam Event Previews
- Start Lists & Results
We are in the final countdown to the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan. The pool swimming events begin this weekend with prelims in the evening -at 7:00 PM Tokyo time- and semi-finals and finals at 10:30 AM the next morning.
Below is the information you need to set your alarm so as not to miss any of the 15 sessions.
Pool Swimming Schedule
(Finals in bold)
| Saturday, July 24 | Sunday, July 25 | Monday, July 26 | Tuesday, July 27 | Wednesday, July 28 | Thursday, July 29 | Friday, July 30 | Saturday, July 31 | Sunday, August 1 | |
| Semi & finals (beginning 10:30AM local time) | (none) | 400 IM M 100 Fly W 400 Free M 400 IM W 100 Breast M 4×100 Free W |
100 Fly W 200 Free M 100 Breast W 100 Breast M 400 Free W 100 Back M 100 Back W 4×100 Free M |
200 Free W 200 Free M 100 Back W 100 Back M 100 Breast W 200 Fly M 200 IM W |
100 Free M 200 Free W 200 Fly M 200 Fly W 200 Breast M 200 IM W 1500 Free W 4×200 Free M |
800 Free M 200 Breast M 100 Free W 200 Back M 200 Fly W 100 Free M 200 Breast W 200 IM M 4×200 Free W |
100 Fly M 100 Free W 200 Back M 200 Breast W 200 IM M 200 Back W |
100 Fly M 200 Back W 800 Free W 50 Free M 50 Free W 4×100 Medley MX |
50 Free M 50 Free W 1500 Free M 4×100 Medley W 4×100 Medley M |
| Heats (beginning 7PM local time) |
400 IM M 100 Fly W 400 Free M 400 IM W 100 Breast M 4×100 Free W |
100 Back W 200 Free M 100 Breast W 100 Back M 400 Free W 4×100 Free M |
200 Free W 200 Fly M 200 IM W 1500 Free W |
100 Free M 200 Fly W 200 Breast M 4×200 Free M 800 Free M |
100 Free W 200 Back M 200 Breast W 200 IM M 4×200 Free W |
800 Free W 100 Fly M 200 Back W 4×100 Medley MX |
50 Free M 50 Free W 1500 Free M 4×100 Medley W 4×100 Medley M |
(none) | (none) |
Session Start Times – Day 1
| City | Zone | PRELIMS | SEMIS & FINALS |
| Tokyo | GMT+9 | 7:00 PM on Saturday, July 24 | 10:30 AM on Sunday, July 25 |
| Honolulu, Papeete | GMT-10 | 12:00 AM on Saturday, July 24 | 3:30 PM on Saturday, July 24 |
| Los Angeles, Seattle, Vancouver | GMT-7 | 3:00 AM on Saturday, July 24 | 6:30 PM on Saturday, July 24 |
| Calgary, Denver, Edmonton, San Salvador | GMT-6 | 4:00 AM on Saturday, July 24 | 7:30 PM on Saturday, July 24 |
| Bogota, Chicago, Dallas, Kingston, Lima, Mexico City | GMT-5 | 5:00 AM on Saturday, July 24 | 8:30 PM on Saturday, July 24 |
| Atlanta, Asuncion, Caracas, La Paz, New York, Toronto | GMT-4 | 6:00 AM on Saturday, July 24 | 9:30 PM on Saturday, July 24 |
| Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo | GMT-3 | 7:00 AM on Saturday, July 24 | 10:30 PM on Saturday, July 24 |
| Abidjan, Dakar, Reykjavik, Timbuktu | GMT+0 | 10:00 AM on Saturday, July 24 | 1:30 AM on Sunday, July 25 |
| Algiers, Dublin, Edinburgh, Kinshasa, Lagos, Lisbon, London, Tunis | GMT+1 | 11:00 AM on Saturday, July 24 | 2:30 AM on Sunday, July 25 |
| Berlin, Brussels, Budapest, Cairo, Copenhagen, Johannesburg, Kigali, Oslo, Paris, Sarajevo, Warsaw, Zagreb, Zurich | GMT+2 | 12:00 noon on Saturday, July 24 | 3:30 AM on Sunday, July 25 |
| Addis Ababa, Athens, Bagdad, Bucharest, Damascus, Dar es Salaam, Helsinki, Istanbul, Kyiv, Mogadishu, Moscow, Riga, Riyadh, | GMT+3 | 1:00 PM on Saturday, July 24 | 4:30 AM on Sunday, July 25 |
| Baku, Dubai, Samara, Tbilisi | GMT+4 | 2:00 PM on Saturday, July 24 | 5:30 AM on Sunday, July 25 |
| Bangkok, Jakarta, Phnom Penh, Vientiane | GMT+7 | 5:00 PM on Saturday, July 24 | 8:30 AM on Sunday, July 25 |
| Beijing, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Taipei | GMT+8 | 6:00 PM on Saturday, July 24 | 9:30 AM on Sunday, July 25 |
| Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne, Vladivostok | GMT+10 | 8:00 PM on Saturday, July 24 | 11:30 AM on Sunday, July 25 |
| Auckland, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Wellington | GMT+12 | 10:00 PM on Saturday, July 24 | 1:30 PM on Sunday, July 25 |
Here’s a visual look at each session by time zone:
Scroll right for more time zones. Scroll down for later days in the Olympic schedule. Major cities are listed for each time zone.
Medal finals are listed with (F). Semifinals are listed with (SF). Events are labeled for men’s (M), women’s (W), and mixed (MX) events.
“Day 1” refers to the traditional swimming structure of a prelims session followed by a finals session – though those two sessions may not share the same exact date, depending on your time zone.
Open water on Aug 3 & 4 at 5:30 pm EDT. They’ll probably do a terrible job with how they cover it but I’ll watch it anyway.
Why are finals in the morning?
Money
YoutubeTV seems to carry BBC. Does that mean with Youtubetv, you can watch the BBC commentary?
Shame on the corrupt IOC to allow that scandal of NBC once again buying the swimming events schedule.
2008 morning finals
2016 finals at 11 PM
2021 morning finals
Shame on the athletes for not protesting and not threatening to boycott while I’m sure that most of them are not happy..
And shame on Tokyo for accepting to be the puppet of the US empire by caving to the NBC dictatorship..
France is also a puppet of the US empire but at least sometimes there are some acts of independence like opposing the last Iraq War. So I’m confident we will not allow foreign interference into our domestic affairs. Anyway if NBC wanted finals… Read more »
Will replays be available online or on the NBC Sports app?
Yes.
I happen to be working from home for the next two weeks – perfect timing!
thanks
Seoul 1988, Sydney 2000, Beijing 2008 and Tokyo 2020/2021 : I like the time zone.