Tokyo Timing: Top American Swimmers’ Olympic Schedules

By Retta Race on SwimSwam

2021 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
• Initial Entries

The Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan will see the swimming finals take place in the morning with prelims happening in the evening hours. This harkens back to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing when we saw the same unconventional agenda to accommodate television broadcast schedules.

In terms of blocking out your calendar, things also get a little tricky since Tokyo’s time zone is 13 hours ahead of Eastern, just one example of how many swim fans around the world will have some type of time gap to contend with when determining when the big names will be in the pool.

To help you along, we picked out 4 of the biggest American swimming names and mapped out their schedules below with Tokyo and Eastern time zone considerations.

Three things to note, however: 1) military time is used for simplicity, 2) we are assuming these swimmers will not be racing in relay prelims and 3) we are assuming Smith, Dressel and Andrew will be members of the mixed medley relay, although we don’t know for sure at this point.

We’ll prepare a similar type schedule for the top Australian swimmers next.

Katie Ledecky

• Saturday, July 24th: OFF
• Sunday, July 25th:
  • 20:39 Tokyo/07:39 ET – 400m free heats
• Monday, July 26th:
  • 11:20 Tokyo/22:20 ET Sunday – 400m free final
  • 19:02 Tokyo/06:02 ET – 200m free heats
  • 20:32 Tokyo/07:32 ET – 1500m free heats
• Tuesday, July 27th:
  • 10:30 Tokyo/21:30 ET Monday – 200m free semi-finals
• Wednesday, July 28th:
  • 10:41 Tokyo/21:41 ET Tuesday – 200m free final
  • 11:54 Tokyo/22:54 ET Tuesday – 1500m free final
• Thursday, July 29th:
  • 12:31 Tokyo/23:31 ET Wednesday – 4x200m free relay final
  • 19:38 Tokyo/06:38 ET – 800m free heats
• Friday, July 30th: OFF
• Saturday, July 31st:
  • 10:46 Tokyo/17:46 ET Friday – 800m free final

Caeleb Dressel

• Saturday, July 24th: OFF
• Sunday, July 25th: OFF
• Monday, July 26th:
  • 12:05 Tokyo/23:05 ET Sunday – 4x100m free relay final
• Tuesday, July 27th
  • 19:00 Tokyo/06:00 ET – 100m free heats
• Wednesday, July 28th
  • 10:30 Tokyo/21:30 ET Tuesday – 100m free semi-final
  • 12:26 Tokyo/23:26 ET Tuesday – 4x200m free relay final
• Thursday, July 29th
  • 11:37 Tokyo/22:37 ET Wednesday – 100m free final
  • 19:50 Tokyo/06:50 ET – 100m fly heats
• Friday, July 30th
  • 10:30 Tokyo/21:30 ET Thursday – 100m fly semi-final
  • 19:02 Tokyo/06:02 ET – 50m free heats
• Saturday, July 31st
  • 10:30 Tokyo/21:30 ET Friday – 100m fly final
  • 11:11 Tokyo/22:11 ET Friday – 50m free semi-final
  • 11:43 Tokyo/22:43 ET Friday – mixed medley relay final
• Sunday, August 1st
  • 10:30 Tokyo/21:30 ET Saturday – 50m free final
  • 11:36 Tokyo/22:36 ET Saturday – men’s medley relay final

Regan Smith

• Saturday, July 24th: OFF
• Sunday, July 25th:
  • 19:02 Tokyo/06:02 ET – 100m back heats
• Monday, July 26th:
  • 11:53 Tokyo/22:53 ET Sunday – 100m back semi-final
• Tuesday, July 27th:
  • 10:51 Tokyo/21:51 ET Monday – 100m back final
  • 19:28 Tokyo/06:28 ET – 200m fly heats
• Wednesday, July 28th:
  • 10:57 Tokyo/21:57 ET Tuesday – 200m fly semi-final
• Thursday, July 29th:
  • 11:28 Tokyo/22:28 ET Wednesday – 200m fly final
• Friday, July 30th: OFF
• Saturday, July 31st:
  • 11:43 Tokyo/22:43 ET Friday – mixed medley relay final
• Sunday, August 1st:
  • 11:15 Tokyo/22:15 ET Saturday – women’s medley relay final

Michael Andrew

• Saturday, July 24th:
  • 20:55 Tokyo/07:55 ET – 100m breast heats
• Sunday, July 25th:
  • 11:33 Tokyo/22:33 ET Saturday – 100m breast semi-final
• Monday, July 26th:
  • 11:12 Tokyo/22:12 ET Sunday – 100m breast final
• Tuesday, July 27th: OFF
• Wednesday, July 28th:
  • 20:15 Tokyo/07:15 ET – 200m IM heats
• Thursday, July 29th:
  • 12:08 Tokyo/23:08 ET Wednesday – 200m IM semi-final
• Friday, July 30th:
  • 11:16 Tokyo/22:16 ET Thursday – 200m IM final
  • 19:02 Tokyo/06:02 ET – 50m free heats
• Saturday, July 31st:
  • 11:11 Tokyo/22:11 ET Friday – 50m free semi-final
  • 11:43 Tokyo/22:43 ET Friday – mixed medley relay final
• Sunday, August 1st:
  • 10:30 Tokyo/21:30 ET Saturday – 50m free final
  • 11:36 Tokyo/22:36 ET Saturday – men’s medley relay final

Read the full story on SwimSwam: Tokyo Timing: Top American Swimmers’ Olympic Schedules