After a one-year wait, the Tokyo Olympics are finally here. While it’s being held without fans in attendance, that won’t impact all of us who are planning to virtually attend from home, watching on our TVs, computers, tablets, and phones.
The festivities officially get underway with the Opening Ceremony on Thursday, but events start happening earlier in the week and really kick off on Friday. How can you watch the Opening Ceremony and the many, many events that will happen over the next two weeks? Here’s what you need to know to make sure you don’t miss a precious second.
How to watch the Opening Ceremony
Tokyo is 13 hours ahead of the Eastern time zone in the U.S., which means the Opening Ceremony will be broadcast live as it’s happening on Friday, July 23 at 7 a.m. ET on NBC. It will also be streaming live on NBCOlympics.com, and the NBC Sports app.
If early morning viewing isn’t for you, you can watch it about 12 hours later when NBC rebroadcasts the Opening Ceremony in prime time starting at 7:30 p.m. ET. You can also catch that rebroadcast streaming on NBCOlympics.com. And neither of those times work, or if you’re up late with a newborn, NBC will be rebroadcasting it overnight.
How to watch other Olympic events
As it has in the past, NBC is doing a full court press for the Olympics. They’re using most of their networks to broadcast Olympics programming: NBC, NBC Sports, the Olympic Channel, the Golf Channel, CNBC, USA, Telemundo, and Universo. And for the first time, you’ll be able to watch Olympics coverage on Peacock, NBC’s streaming service. Peacock will be streaming multi-sport coverage and medal races essentially 24 hours a day from July 24 through August 7. You don’t need a paid subscription to watch the vast majority of events on Peacock; everything but men’s basketball will be free to watch.
You can find a full schedule at this link, but here’s a quick primer on when and where you can catch the most anticipated sports of the Games.
Basketball
When to watch: July 24-Aug. 8
Where to watch: CNBC, NBC Sports, NBC Olympics, Peacock
Gymnastics
When to watch: July 23-Aug. 23
Where to watch: NBC Sports, NBC Olympics, Peacock
Swimming
When to watch: July 24-Aug. 4
Where to watch: NBC Sports, NBC Olympics, Peacock
Track and field
When to watch: July 29-Aug. 7
Where to watch: CNBC, NBC Olympics
Soccer
When to watch: July 24-Aug. 7
Where to watch: NBC Sports, NBC Olympics, Peacock
Beach volleyball
When to watch: July 23-Aug. 6
Where to watch: CNBC, NBC Olympics
Skateboarding
When to watch: July 24-Aug. 4
Where to watch: NBC Sports, NBC Olympics
Diving
When to watch: July 25-Aug. 7
Where to watch: CNBC, NBC Sports, NBC Olympics
Surfing
When to watch: July 24-31
Where to watch: NBC Sports, NBC Olympics
More Olympics coverage from Yahoo Sports: