With the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro now just 221 days away, Rio organizers have released the competitive sporting schedule in its entirety. The Opening Ceremonies are slated to kick-off on August 5th, with pool swimming scheduled to span August 6th – 13th at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium in Barra Olympic Park. Marathon Swimming (open water) then takes place on August 15th and 16th at Fort Copacabana.
Per the comprehensive competitive pool schedule (see end of this post), the order of events remains the same as the 2012 Olympic Games, as well as the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials. However, as previously reported, the start times of the ‘morning’ and ‘evening’ sessions in Rio are quite different from the past. Prelims are set to begin at 1pm local/10am Eastern each day, with semifinals/finals beginning at 10pm local/7pm Eastern.
As such, several countries have already taken part in special training preparations to have potential Olympic athletes acclimate to the off-hours competition. Australia held a ‘Rio Protocol Camp‘ back in September, while the Danish Olympic-qualifying meet in April will follow these Rio start times.
Taking the timeline into account, we can start to visualize which key athletes we’ll see on which days in Rio, potentially. For example, with American Katie Ledecky considering swimming both the 100m freestyle and/or the 400m IM at the U.S. Olympic Trials in July, the 18-year-old could have quite the jam-packed schedule in Rio. The world record holder’s signature events of the 400m free and 800m free, as well as the 800m free relay would render her active on the following days:
Sunday, August 7th – women’s 400m freestyle prelims/final
Wednesday, August 10th – women’s 800m freestyle relay prelims/final
Thursday, August 11th – women’s 800m freestyle prelims
Friday, August 12th – women’s 800m freestyle finals
Add in the 200m freestyle for Ledecky, of which she has proven she is more than a viable threat via her victory at the 2015 FINA World Championships, and that books Ledecky for both Monday, August 8th (prelims) and Tuesday, August 9th (finals). Factoring in the additional ‘experimental’ events should Ledecky qualify for the stars n’ stripes roster in the 400m IM and/ or 100m freestyle, she would also be throwing down additional meters on the Thursday/Friday on which she is already scheduled to complete in the 800m freestyle relay and 800m freestyle individual event.
The women’s 400m IM is slated to start on the very first day, Saturday, August 6th, so Ledecky could potentially kick-off her 2016 Olympic campaign a day early. Ledecky could come into play in the women’s 400m freestyle relay as well, which also sees action on day 1.
22-time Olympic medalist, Michael Phelps, assuming he targets the individual events of the 200m IM, 200m butterfly and 100m butterfly, would see a relatively friendly schedule for his 30-year-old body. If Phelps were to be a member of the men’s 400m freestyle relay, his 2016 schedule would kick-off with a swim on that squad on Sunday, August 7th. Additional days would potentially pan out like this for Phelps:
Monday, August 8th – men’s 200m butterfly prelims/semifinal
Tuesday, August 9th – men’s 200m butterfly finals, men’s 800m freestyle relay finals
Wednesday, August 10th – men’s 200m IM prelims/semifinal
Thursday August 11th – men’s 100m butterfly prelims/semifinal, men’s 200m IM final
Friday, August 12th – men’s 100m butterfly final
Saturday, August 13th – men’s 400m freestyle relay final
According to Rio organizers, they have created a ‘fair, transparent and reliable process’ concerning spectator ticket sales, to ensure an exciting and memorable experience for all. Over 50% of the available 7.5 million spectator tickets will cost no more than R$70 ($18). Additionally, students, municipal school teachers from Rio de Janeiro, obese, senior citizens, people with an impairment and those with reduced mobility have the right to half-price tickets.
John Martin, USA Swimming’s Sports Communication Manager, tells SwimSwam that there is no change to the U.S. Olympic Trials schedule, which follows the Olympic schedule with the exception of no relays. The full Olympic schedule is below:
HEATS |
SEMIFINALS/FINALS |
| SATURDAY, AUG 6TH
Men’s 400m IM Women’s 100m Fly Men’s 400m Free Women’s 400m IM Men’s 100m Breast Women’s 4 x 100m Free Relay
|
SATURDAY, AUG 6TH
Men’s 400m IM – Final Women’s 100m Fly – Semifinal Men’s 400m Free – Final Women’s 400m IM – Final Men’s 100m Breast – Semifinal Women’s 4 x 100m Free Relay – Final
|
| SUNDAY, AUG 7TH
Women’s 100m Back Men’s 200m Free Women’s 100m Breast Men’s 100m Back Women’s 400m Free Men’s 4 x 100m Free Relay
|
SUNDAY, AUG 7TH
Women’s 100m Fly – Final Men’s 200m Free – Semifinal Women’s 100m Breast – Semifinal Men’s 100m Breast – Final Women’s 400m Free – Final Men’s 100m Back – Semifinal Women’s 100m Back – Semifinal Men’s 4 x 100m Free Relay – Final
|
| MONDAY, AUG 8TH
Women’s 200m Free Men’s 200m Fly Women’s 200m IM
|
MONDAY, AUG 8TH
Women’s 200m Free – Semifinal Men’s 200m Free – Final Women’s 100m Back – Final Men’s 100m Back – Final Women’s 100m Breast – Final Men’s 200m Fly – Semifinal Women’s 200m IM — Semifinal
|
| TUESDAY, AUG 9TH
Men’s 100m Free Women’s 200m Fly Men’s 200m Breast Men’s 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay
|
TUESDAY, AUG 9TH
Men’s 100m Free – Semifinal Women’s 200m Free – Final Men’s 200m Fly – Final Women’s 200m Fly – Semifinal Men’s 200m Breast – Semifinal Women’s 200m IM – Final Men’s 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay – Final
|
| WEDNESDAY, AUG 10TH
Women’s 100m Free Men’s 200m Back Women’s 200m Breast Men’s 200m IM Women’s 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay
|
WEDNESDAY, AUG 10TH
Men’s 200m Breast – Final Women’s 100m Free – Semifinal Men’s 200m Back – Semifinal Women’s 200m Fly – Final Men’s 100m Free – Final Women’s 200m Breast – Semifinal Men’s 200m IM – Semifinal Women’s 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay – Final
|
| THURSDAY, AUG 11TH
Men’s 50m Free Women’s 800m Free Men’s 100m Fly Women’s 200m Back
|
THURSDAY, AUG 11TH
Men’s 50m Free – Semifinal Women’s 200m Breast – Final Men’s 200m Back – Final Women’s 200m Back – Semifinal Men’s 200m IM – Final Women’s 100m Free – Final Men’s 100m Fly – Semifinal
|
| FRIDAY, AUG 12TH
Women’s 50m Free Men’s 1500m Free Women’s 4 x 100m Medley Relay Men’s 4 x 100m Medley Relay
|
FRIDAY, AUG 12TH
Women’s 200m Back – Final Men’s 100m Fly – Final Women’s 800m Free – Final Men’s 50m Free – Final Women’s 50m Free – Semifinal
|
| SATURDAY, AUG 13TH
No Preliminaries
|
SATURDAY, AUG 13TH
Women’s 50m Free – Final Men’s 1500m Free – Final Women’s 4 x 100m Medley Relay – Final Men’s 4 x 100m Medley Relay – Final |
When do they swim for the medal
What time.does the swimming begin tonight,,,and what are the times for the swimming tomorrow,,,please
Thank you laurs
any way to put this into a PDF we can download?
thanks for the info
If the IOC wasn’t this greedy it had let the swimmers do their jobs at normal local times. Swimming at 10pm is a freaking nightmare, and unless you didn’t have any major competitions for a while and you knew you are going, you have only 1 month to get used to this, which is not enough. Not to mention that the aquatic center is a temporary structure, and as an architect, I seriously doubt that the air-con will be good, if the roof is closed at all to protect from possible very hot weather. All I can do is wish everyone to have their perfect swim day, despite the anything but perfect conditions.
does anyone know the start times for the prelims and finals on August 6th
Since the time this article was written, the northern hem has changed clocks ahead one hour for daylight savings, and southern hem has changed clocks back one hour for their winter, so the time difference noted above for the swimming events in August is listed incorrectly. It should read:
Prelims 1pm local time/12pm eastern time (9am pacific)
Finals 10pm local time/9pm eastern time (6pm pacific)
https://www.rio2016.com/sites/default/files/users/rio216_files/session_competition_schedule_en.pdf
What’s the schedule for the open water swimming ?