Olympics swimming schedule: Day-by-day TV coverage to watch every event at 2021 Tokyo Games

Edward Sutelan

Olympics swimming schedule: Day-by-day TV coverage to watch every event at 2021 Tokyo Games image

A year later than expected, but fans are ready none the less: Olympic swimming is back. 

It was a thrilling 2016 Rio Games, from Simone Manuel and Penny Oleksiak tying in the 100 meter freestyle and Katie Ledecky setting two new world records, to the outstanding Olympic debut of Ryan Murphy and the final Olympics for Michael Phelps. 

This year is expected to deliver some more exciting action. Canada's Kylie Masse and Oleksiak are strong contenders for Olympic gold, while the U.S. looks to have a stout roster once again with Ledecky, Murphy and Caeleb Dressel all expected to have big performances in the pool of the Tokyo Aquatics Centre. 

Sporting News has you covered for how to watch all the events over the week of swimming action, from the morning's heats to the evening's finals. All dates and times are according to Eastern Standard Time. 

MORE: Watch the Olympics live with fuboTV (7-day free trial)

How to watch Olympic swimming

  • TV channels: NBC (U.S.) | USA Network (U.S.) | CBC (Canada)
  • Live streams: NBCSports.com | NBCOlympics.com | Peacock | fuboTV (7-day free trial)

NBC and CBC have the exclusive rights to all Olympic content in the U.S. and Canada, respectively, and as such, each will carry all the swimming events during the 2021 Tokyo Games. 

Fans hoping to stream the events can find them on NBC platforms NBCSports.com, NBCOlympics.com or Peacock, as well as on fuboTV, which offers a 7-day free trial

MORE: Full results for every Olympic swimming event

Olympics swimming schedule 2021

With the exception of July 31, each day will begin with heats starting at 6 a.m. ET and will end with finals races starting up at 9:30 p.m. ET each day. The USA Network will carry the heats in the United States and NBC will have the finals, while CBC will provide coverage of both events in Canada. 

Those in the United States hoping to see replays of the qualifying heats can tune into NBC every afternoon to see how swimmers performed earlier in the morning. 

Saturday, July 24

Event Time (ET) Channel (U.S.) Channel (Canada)
Heats 6 a.m. USA CBC
Finals 9:30 p.m. NBC CBC

Sunday, July 25

Event Time (ET) Channel (U.S.) Channel (Canada)
Heats 6 a.m. USA CBC
Finals 9:30 p.m. NBC CBC

Monday, July 26

Event Time (ET) Channel (U.S.) Channel (Canada)
Heats 6 a.m. USA CBC
Finals 9:30 p.m. NBC CBC

Tuesday, July 27

Event Time (ET) Channel (U.S.) Channel (Canada)
Heats 6 a.m. USA CBC
Finals 9:30 p.m. NBC CBC

Wednesday, July 28

Event Time (ET) Channel (U.S.) Channel (Canada)
Heats 6 a.m. USA CBC
Finals 9:30 p.m. NBC CBC

Thursday, July 29

Event Time (ET) Channel (U.S.) Channel (Canada)
Heats 6 a.m. USA CBC
Finals 9:30 p.m. NBC CBC

Friday, July 30

Event Time (ET) Channel (U.S.) Channel (Canada)
Heats 6 a.m. USA CBC
Finals 9:30 p.m. NBC CBC

Saturday, July 31

Event Time (ET) Channel (U.S.) Channel (Canada)
Finals 9:30 p.m. NBC CBC

MORE: Full day-by-day schedule of events for the 2021 Olympics

Olympic swimming events schedule

Swimming fans are going to have days filled with their favorite sport. 

From July 24-30, every day will have heats early in the morning, and semifinals and finals in the evening. On July 31, there will only be five finals races held in the evening to wrap up swimming at the Olympics. Each day, the morning events will begin at 6 a.m. ET, while the evening events begin at 9:30 p.m. ET. 

Saturday, July 24

Morning Evening
Men's 400 Individual Medley (Heats) Men's 400 Individual Medley (Finals)
Women's 100 Butterfly (Heats) Women's 100 Butterfly (Semifinals)
Men's 400 Freestyle (Heats) Men's 400 Freestyle (Finals)
Women's 400 Individual Medley (Heats) Women's 400 Individual Medley (Finals)
Men's 100 Breaststroke (Heats) Men's 100 Breaststroke (Semifinals)
Women's 4x100 Freestyle Relay (Heats) Women's 4x100 Freestyle Relay (Finals)

Sunday, July 25

Morning Evening
Women's 100 Backstroke (Heats) Women's 100 Butterfly (Finals)
Men's 200 Freestyle (Heats) Men's 200 Freestyle (Semifinals)
Women's 100 Breaststroke (Heats) Women's 100 Breaststroke (Semifinals)
Men's 100 Backstroke (Heats) Men's 100 Breaststroke (Finals)
Women's 400 Freestyle (Heats) Women's 400 Freestyle (Finals)
Men's 4x100 Freestyle Relay (Heats) Men's 100 Backstroke (Semifinals)
-- Women's 100 Backstroke (Semifinals)
-- Men's 4x100 Freestyle Relay (Finals)

Monday, July 26

Morning Evening
Women's 200 Freestyle (Heats) Women's 200 Freestyle (Semifinals)
Men's 200 Butterfly (Heats) Men's 200 Freestyle (Finals)
Women's 200 Individual Medley (Heats) Women's 100 Backstroke (Finals)
Women's 1500 Freestyle (Heats) Men's 100 Backstroke (Finals)
-- Women's 100 Breaststroke (Finals)
-- Men's 200 Butterfly (Semifinals)
-- Women's 200 Individual Medley (Semifinals)

Tuesday, July 27

Morning Evening
Men's 100 Freestyle (Heats) Men's 100 Freestyle (Semifinals)
Women's 200 Butterfly (Heats) Women's 200 Freestyle (Finals)
Men's 200 Breaststroke (Heats) Men's 200 Butterfly (Finals)
Men's 4x200 Freestyle Relay (Heats) Women's 200 Butterfly (Semifinals)
Men's 800 Freestyle (Heats) Men's 200 Breaststroke (Semifinals)
-- Women's 200 Individual Medley (Finals)
-- Women's 1500 Freestyle (Finals)
-- Men's 4x200 Freestyle Relay (Finals)

Wednesday, July 28

Morning Evening
Women's 100 Freestyle (Heats) Men's 800 Freestyle (Finals)
Men's 200 Backstroke (Heats) Men's 200 Breaststroke (Finals)
Women's 200 Breaststroke (Heats) Women's 100 Freestyle (Semifinals)
Men's 200 Individual Medley (Heats) Men's 200 Backstroke (Semifinals)
Women's 4x200 Freestyle Relay (Heats) Women's 200 Butterfly (Finals)
-- Men's 100 Freestyle (Finals)
-- Women's 200 Breaststroke (Semifinals)
-- Men's 200 Individual Medley (Semifinals)
-- Women's 4x200 Freestyle Relay (Finals)

Thursday, July 29

Morning Evening
Women's 800 Freestyle (Heats) Men's 100 Butterfly (Semifinals)
Men's 100 Butterfly (Heats) Women's 200 Breaststroke (Finals)
Women's 200 Backstroke (Heats) Men's 200 Backstroke (Finals)
Mixed 4x100 Medley Relay (Heats) Women's 100 Freestyle (Finals)
-- Men's 200 Individual Medley (Finals)
-- Women's 200 Backstroke (Semifinals)

Friday, July 30

Morning Evening
Men's 50 Freestyle (Heats) Men's 100 Butterfly (Finals)
Women's 50 Freestyle (Heats) Women's 200 Backstroke (Finals)
Men's 1500 Freestyle (Heats) Women's 800 Freestyle (Finals)
Women's 4x100 Medley Relay (Heats) Men's 50 Freestyle (Semifinals)
Men's 4x100 Medley Relay (Heats) Women's 50 Freestyle (Semifinals)
-- Mixed 4x100 Medley Relay (Finals)

Saturday, July 31

Evening
Men's 50 Freestyle (Finals)
Women's 50 Freestyle (Finals)
Men's 1500 Freestyle (Finals)
Women's 4x100 Medley Relay (Finals)
Men's 4x100 Medley Relay (Finals)

Olympic swimming entry times - men

Olympic swimming entry times - women

Edward Sutelan

Edward Sutelan Photo

Edward Sutelan joined The Sporting News in 2021 after covering high school sports for PennLive. Edward graduated from The Ohio State University in 2019, where he gained experience covering the baseball, football and basketball teams. Edward also spent time working for The Columbus Dispatch and Cape Cod Times.