How to watch swimming at the Tokyo Olympics

Swimming enters a new era in Tokyo following the legendary Olympic career of Michael Phelps. In his wake, the competition in the pool is as fierce – and as fast – as ever.

American superstars Katie Ledecky and Caeleb Dressel have sights set on huge gold medal hauls while international rivals Ariarne Titmus (AUS) and Kristof Milak (HUN) will be eager to get in the way of those plans. Regan Smith leads an exciting group of teenaged phenoms while Simone Manuel, Sarah Sjostrom (SWE), Hagino Kosuke (JPN) and Katinka Hosszu (HUN) highlight the returning Olympic veterans.

The Tokyo Games will feature preliminary sessions in the evening local time and finals sessions in the morning. Since Japan is 13 hours ahead of Eastern Time, as a result, every finals session will air in the evening in the U.S. and will feature prominently in the first week of NBC’s primetime Olympics coverage.

In addition, every session of qualifying heats will air LIVE on USA starting at 6 a.m. each day of competition (find full TV listings for swimming and any other Olympic sport on the full TV schedule).

Every swimming session can also be streamed LIVE on NBCOlympics.com and on the NBC Sports app. See below for a full schedule of sessions including streaming links, as well as an event-by-event rundown for each day of competition.

Questions about how to stream on your device? Visit our frequently asked questions page for more details.

Swimming Sessions Schedule

Event-By-Event Schedule