The revised competition schedule for next year’s Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games has been released, allowing fans to find out exactly when their favourite Team GB athletes will be in action.
The IOC have confirmed that the Opening Ceremony will take place at the Olympic Stadium on Friday July 23, 2021 at 8pm local time, which is midday BST.
The Closing Ceremony will also be held at the Olympic Stadium, a little over two weeks later on Sunday August 8 – again getting underway at 12pm BST.
Each session of the Games – which was delayed for a year due to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic – has been scheduled as originally planned for 2020, although some start and end times have been adjusted for operational reasons.
That means some sports will start before the Games are officially opened, with softball getting on base on July 21 and preliminary football matches also kicking off on the same day – 48 hours prior to the Opening Ceremony.
Friday July 23, the day of the Opening Ceremony, will also see rowing preliminary events and archery ranking rounds, while the first medal event is the women’s shooting 10m air rifle on Saturday July 24, getting underway at 12.30am UK time.
That first Saturday will also see six more sports contest medal events – archery, cycling (men’s road race), fencing, judo, taekwondo and weightlifting – with 11 golds in total up for grabs.
Team GB fans could have a chance to see taekwondo star Jade Jones make history by securing gold at three successive Olympic Games on Sunday July 25, with the women’s -57kg category reaching its conclusion, as the medal session starts at 11am in the UK.
Sunday evening could also feature some medal action as the Brownlee brothers will dive in for the first leg of the men’s triathlon at 10.30pm (6.30am Monday morning in Japan)
If you can stay up overnight on Sunday, into Monday, then you may well be rewarded as Adam Peaty will expect to be in the men’s 100m breaststroke final from 2.30am BST, 12-year-old skateboarding superstar Sky Brown could be in the women’s street final at 1am before Tom Daley will likely dive for gold in the men’s 10m synchro final from 7am.
The blue riband rowing men’s coxless four final is on Wednesday July 28, with the session starting at 12.30am BST, while Mo Farah may be going for a third consecutive men’s 10,000m gold medal on the track from 11am on Friday July 30.
Other athletics highlights includes the women’s 100m final on Saturday July 31 and the women’s 200m final on Tuesday August 3 – both of which could include Dina Asher-Smith – while Katarina Johnson-Thompson’s moment of glory would come on Thursday August 5 as the women’s heptathlon reaches its conclusion in the session that starts at 11am BST.
If Andy Murray is to notch a remarkable three consecutive men’s singles tennis golds then he will be in action in the final on Sunday August 1.
The Izu velodrome could be a source of Team GB joy and the Kenny household will have Tuesday August 3 circled on their calendars as Laura could be going for women’s team pursuit gold, while Jason targets the men’s team sprint – both finals scheduled for the session that starts at 7.30am in the UK.
Laura may well also be in action in the Madison on Friday August 6 and the omnium two days later in one of Tokyo 2020’s final events on the Sunday – and were she to clinch three gold medals, she could become Team GB’s most successful ever Olympian.
That second week of the Games will, all things being equal, include skateboarder Brown contesting the park final on Wednesday August 3 and Shauna Coxsey competing in another new Olympic discipline, sport climbing, on Friday August 5 with the women’s combined final.
Friday is also the day of destiny for Team GB’s women’s hockey side if they want to repeat their Rio 2016 heroics, with the final scheduled for 11am BST, while Daley’s second chance at diving gold could come in the men’s 10m platform final on Saturday August 7 from 7am.
To see the entire competition schedule and work out when your favourite athlete could be in action, head to https://tokyo2020.org/en/schedule/.