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 with Tokyo and Eastern time zone considerations. You can review that post here.
Now let’s perform the same exercise for a handful of Australian swimmers including Emma McKeon, Kaylee McKeown, Kyle Chalmers and Matt Temple. The schedule is a tad simpler with Australian Eastern Time (Queensland) sitting just an hour ahead of Tokyo.
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 they will be members of the mixed medley relay, although we don’t know for sure at this point.
*AEST = Australian Eastern Time
- Saturday, July 24th:
- 19:28 Tokyo/20:28 AEST – 100m fly heats
- Sunday, July 25th:
- 10:40 Tokyo/11:40 AEST – 100m fly semi-final
- 11:45 Tokyo/12:45 AEST – 4x100m free relay final
- Monday, July 26th:
- 10:30 Tokyo/11:30 AEST – 100m fly final
- Tuesday, July 27th: OFF
- Wednesday, July 28th:
- 19:02 Tokyo/20:02 AEST – 100m free heats
- Thursday, July 29th:
- 10:53 Tokyo/11:53 AEST – 100m free semi-final
- 12:31 Tokyo/13:31 AEST – 4x200m free relay final
- Friday, July 30th:
- 10:59 Tokyo/11:59 AEST – 100m free final
- 19:24 Tokyo/20:24 AEST – 50m free heats
- Saturday, July 31st:
- 11:32 Tokyo/12:32 AEST – 50m free semi-final
- 11:43 Tokyo/12:43 AEST – mixed medley relay final
- Sunday, August 1st:
- 10:37 Tokyo/11:37 AEST – 50m free final
- 11:15 Tokyo/12:15 AEST – women’s medley relay final
- Saturday, July 24th: OFF
- Sunday, July 25th:
- 19:02 Tokyo/20:02 AEST – 100m back heats
- Monday, July 26th:
- 11:53 Tokyo/12:53 AEST – 100m back semi-final
19:56 Tokyo/20:56 AEST – 200m IM heats
- Tuesday, July 27th:
- 10:51 Tokyo/11:51 AEST – 100m back final
11:58 Toyo/12:58 AEST – 200m IM semi-final
- Wednesday, July 28th:
11:45 Tokyo/12:45 AEST – 200m IM final
- Thursday, July 29th:
- 20:08 Tokyo/21:08 AEST – 200m back heats
- Friday, July 30th:
- 11:35 Tokyo/12:35 AEST – 200m back semi-final
- Saturday, July 31st:
- 10:37 Tokyo/11:37 AEST – 200m back final
- 11:43 Tokyo/12:43 AEST – mixed medley relay final
- Sunday, August 1st:
- 11:15 Tokyo/12:15 AEST – women’s medley relay final
- Saturday, July 24th: OFF
- Sunday, July 25th: OFF
- Monday, July 26th:
- 12:05 Tokyo/13:05 AEST – 4x100m free relay final
- Tuesday, July 27th:
- 19:02 Tokyo/20:02 AEST – 100m free heats
- Wednesday, July 28th:
- 10:30 Tokyo/11:30 AEST – 100m free semi-final
- 12:26 Tokyo/13:26 AEST – 4x200m free relay final
- Thursday, July 29th:
- 11:37 Tokyo/12:37 AEST – 100m free final
- Friday, July 30th: OFF
- Saturday, July 31st:
- 11:43 Tokyo/12:43 AEST – mixed medley relay final
- Sunday, August 1st:
- 11:36 Tokyo/12:36 AEST – men’s medley relay final
- Saturday, July 24th: OFF
- Sunday, July 25th: OFF
- Monday, July 26th:
- 12:05 Tokyo/13:05 AEST – 4x100m free relay final
- 19:29 Tokyo/20:29 AEST – 200m fly hats
- Tuesday, July 27th:
- 11:35 Tokyo/12:35 AEST – 200m fly semi-final
- Wednesday, July 28th:
- 10:49 Tokyo/11:49 AEST – 200m fly final
- Thursday, July 29th:
- 19:50 Tokyo/20:50 AEST – 100m fly heats
- Friday, July 30th:
- 10:30 Tokyo/11:30 AEST – 100m fly semi-final
- Saturday, July 31st:
- 10:30 Tokyo/11:30 AEST – 100m fly final
- 11:43 Tokyo/12:43 AEST – mixed medley relay final
- Sunday, August 1st:
- 11:36 Tokyo/12:36 AEST – men’s medley relay final
Unlike the women I think the men should just swim their A team in that 4×100 free heats .. I think they’re gonna go McEvoy, Graham, Incerti and Temple for heats though and save Chalmers for finals
I agree or at least keep Chalmers in the heats and rest Temple if they’re gonna rest someone. Chalmers has a day and a half off after the relay before 100 free heats so resting him seems overkill.
I believe Kaylee McKeown should have entered the 400IM given her number one raking and the fact it doesn’t clash with her other events. At the 2012 Olympics Missy Franklin had three individual events plus three relays. She performed brilliantly but never came close to recapturing that form. At the 2001 WC’s Ian Thorpe did the 200/400/800 FS. He didn’t have to swim the 800FS. It’s a tough event and it wasn’t on the Olympics at the time. He did the treble and his 800 time was 7.39.16 which is the third fastest ever in textile and just adds to his legendary status. He continued to be a force for a few more years but 2001 was his peak. The point I’m trying to make is that… Read more »
I think Emma and Kaylee both took calculated risks. Both gave up an event where they had solid shots to medal (Emma very unlikely to get gold, but Kaylee with a solid gold shot). However, both have three other events where they are in gold contention. Maybe they could have medaled in all 4, but imagine if they ended up with 2 or 3 silvers and no golds and always wondered whether that extra event is what cost them that hundredth of a second which lost them gold? Different people probably have different opinions on this but I’d prefer one individual gold to 3 silvers.
What about Titmus’ schedule? That would be interesting.
Would love to see Emma do the 200 free but having semis makes it very difficult. Damn semis
She already has 5 doubles, all 5 of which include a final. Her schedule sucks as it is, let alone including 3 x 200m more swims.
I think that only doing 50-100m events might let her focus more on sprinting to hopefully take out one of those. Although I guess she will be vital in the 4×200 so can’t let that slide either.
EDIT: Actually she has both a morning and night swim one day that I counted as a double that isn’t really. But even so, she has 4 doubles all of which are for finals.
Emma should concentrate on the sprints, even if she swims a 1.55 200 free in the 4×200, we still have the depth & Araine to win fairly comfortably.
I’m agreeing with you that she shouldn’t do the 200 free individual. It’s just a shame. Like Kaylee in 400 IM.
I thought initially that Kaylee McKeown ahould do the 4IM but looking at her program and realising she could win three golds I now agree that it is too big a risk to blow it all with two quick 4IMs at the start of the meet. I think she had a great chance of winning the 4IM but arguably it is the weakest of her four events.
I hope Emma swims the lead off in the 4 x 200 and posts a time that would’ve medaled. I know it’s not the same but there has to be an element of satisfaction in doing that. And also, we get to see what she could do (taking into account those that swam the even will have had to swim 3 x 200s to medal)
Can the Australian men afford to rest both Temple and Chalmers for the 400m free relay heats? I thought they would include at least one of them but maybe that’s me just being cautious
No- not at Olympic level….
I think so. Even resting those 2 something would have to go pretty pear shaped to miss the final. But I guess it is a risk.
They didn’t bring enough 100 freestylers to rest both.