On the day Tokyo 2020 organizers announced that new Olympic venues’ construction is on track, they also revealed the competitive sporting schedule for the next edition of the Summer Games. Well, most of it.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board has approved the competition schedule, featuring a record 33 sports across 339 events. However, most aquatic events’ specific dates are still ‘to be determined.’ Accompanying the high-level schedule is a note indicating, ‘Tokyo 2020 is currently completing the competition schedule by session for swimming, artistic swimming, and diving, and will finalise this shortly.’
The Games will span from July 24th to August 9th of 2020, with rowing and archery events taking place on the day of the opening ceremony itself. Per its announcement,Tokyo 2020 took a holistic approach when compiling the schedule, taking into account the technical rules and regulations of the various international federations, gender balance, the popularity of individual sports in Japan, operational considerations, athletes’ experience & well-being, and the global TV audience.’
Water polo is currently the only aquatic sport with dates specified, spanning the entire Olympic Games’ timeframe.
Tokyo 2020 says a more detailed schedule by event will identify the individual times of specific events, such as heats, semi-finals, etc. But from this initial edition on its site, surfing appears to have the earliest start time of 7am, while sports such as beach volleyball and rowing list a starting time of 9am. Night events look to be scheduled for the 7pm, 8pm and 9pm timeframes at this point.
We reported back in May that, due to the addition of the men’s 800 free, women’s 1500 free, and mixed-gender 400 medley relay, Olympic organizers could add a day to the Tokyo swimming schedule, but it looks like we have more time to wait to see if that actually happens.
You can view the entire Tokyo 2020 schedule as it stands today here.
Unreal. That a Tokyo games is planned in late July is mind boggling stupid. It will be an absolute DEATH MARCH for all outdoor distance events. Amazingly stupid. Apparently the last time the IOC was in Tokyo was n 1964……….. in OCTOBER! When the games was held at the correct time of year. I live in Tokyo. It’s unbearable. Someone or multiple people need to get slapped HARD, many many times… Open Water swimming… are you kidding me?! The ocean is so friggin hot and full of jellies. This will be the untold story of a games trying to reap maximum profits. Monumental idiocy.
The average high in Tokyo in late July is 30 degrees C/86F, which is not significantly different than the average high in Rio in mid-August (and much cooler than it actually was in Rio, slightly cooler than Beijing, much cooler than Athens, much warmer than London).
Open water swimming isn’t going to be held in the open Ocean. It’s going to be held in the Odaiba Marine Park. Water temperatures tested on 10 days on the same approximate calendar dates as the Olympics measured at 24.6 degrees to 31.5 degrees on the course. As long as they’re not swimming mid-day, and are closer to 24.6 degrees, that’s about the right temperature. I would assume that the measures they’re taking to… Read more »
Odaiba is in Tokyo Bay and has virtually no tidal flow or currents to change the water out. Triathlon will be held there as well. It will be a death march.
I’m wondering if it would be some schedule issues that may affect Sjostrom’s decision to compete in 200 free?
Interesting how times haven’t been released yet for swimming and diving. Gymnastics and track and field finals are already scheduled for evening local time.
are they having the finals in the morning like in Beijing? or is that a still a rumor?
Presumably it is being debated that is why the schedule hasn’t been released yet
Adding a day to the swimming schedule makes a lot of sense.
Also, I’d like to see the finals of the men’s 50 free and 100 fly on different days (currently they’re both on the penultimate day).
What changes would you like to see?
Men’s 400 Free and 400 IM on different days; also Men’s 200 Back and 200 IM on different days.
Right now, the women swim the 200m freestyle and the 200m individual medley on the same days, plus the same day as the finals, they also swim the 200m butterfly heats and semis. Whether anyone on the women’s side will end up competing in more than one of those events, it would probably be better to spread out the women’s 200m events better.
Definitely move the 50 to the last like the women. That way Caeleb can do the 200 IM without too much overlap 😉
But the 400 free and IM should be on different days. That never made sense to me.