Events at the Tokyo Summer Olympics are starting today
You can exhale now ā the Tokyo Summer Olympics are finally about to kick off.
After a year of postponement due to the pandemic, the Games of the XXXII Olympiad are set to begin later this evening.
Australia and Japan kick off the action with a round robin women’s softball match taking place at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT.
Canada’s first action comes with a softball game of their own at 2 am ET/11 am PT on July 21/20, depending on your time zone, while Canada’s women’s soccer team takes on Japan in their opening match at 6:30 am ET/3:30 am PT on July 21.
If the nighttime game is too late for you, do not worry. Canada’s softball team will actually be back in action less than 24 hours later with a match against the US, at a more manageable time of 8 pm ET/5 pm PT on July 21.
Archery and rowing events are set to begin on Thursday, while 3×3 basketball, artistic gymnastics, beach volleyball, boxing, cycling, fencing, field hockey, handball, shooting, table tennis, taekwondo, volleyball, and weightlifting will start their competitions on this coming Friday.
In other marquee events, swimming starts Saturday, July 24, while athletics competition begins later next week on Thursday, July 29.
A full, day-by-day Olympics schedule can be found here via the Canadian Olympic Committee.
The opening ceremonies for this year’s Olympics take place this Friday, July 23, beginning at 7 am ET/4 am PT.
Things aren’t all squeaky clean in Tokyo: the Games are at least a billion dollars over budget, no domestic or international fans are allowed in the stands, and athletes have already begun testing positive for COVID-19 after arriving in Japan.