2021 Olympics: Tokyo Summer TV Schedule, Live Stream and Monday Predictions
July 26, 2021
When Monday morning dawns in the U.S., the events of the Tokyo Olympics scheduled for Day 4 will just be reaching a peak, 13 hours ahead of the Eastern Time Zone.
If you happen to be awake very early Monday morning, you can watch the events happening in the afternoon in Japan, which include tennis men's and women's second-round singles and doubles matches, the dominant U.S. women's water polo team taking on China and the men's diving synchronized platform final.
Early Monday morning, you can also catch the swimming qualifying heats for the finals that will be broadcast in primetime on NBC Monday night stateside and held Tuesday morning, Tokyo Time.
And that will be the highlight of Olympics coverage for Monday; the swimming medal events include the men's 200-meter freestyle, women's 100-meter backstroke, men's 100-meter backstroke, women's 100-meter breaststroke, as well as the semifinals for women's 200-meter freestyle, men's 200-meter butterfly and women's 200-meter individual medley.
Let's take a look at the TV and live-stream schedule for Monday's Olympic events and then break down what and who you should watch for when you tune in.
Monday TV, Live-Stream Schedule
2-5 a.m. ET, CNBC
Men's basketball, shooting skeet, archery
2-7 a.m. ET, Olympic Channel
Men's and women's tennis
2-10:30 a.m., USA
Women's water polo, diving, canoe slalom, rugby, swimming, 3x3 basketball, men's volleyball
5 a.m.-8 p.m., NBCSN
Fencing, beach volleyball
6-11 a.m. ET, Peacock
Men's gymnastics
5:30-8 p.m. ET, USA
Women's triathlon (women's final)
8-10:10 p.m., CNBC
Women's beach volleyball, men's water polo
9:30-11:30 p.m. ET, NBC
Swimming finals
10 p.m-2 a.m., Olympic Channel
Men's and women's tennis
10:10 p.m.-12 a.m., CNBC
Rugby, fencing
11 p.m.-12:30 p.m., USA
Men's beach volleyball
Preview, Predictions
The women's 100-meter breaststroke event is one of the highlights of these Games. American Lilly King, who won the event in 2016, is looking to defend her gold medal, and 17-year-old Lydia Jacoby, who is competing in her first Games, is a favorite for silver.
Jacoby finished second in her heat in the preliminaries but couldn't quite catch South Africa's Tatjana Schoenmaker, who set a new Olympic record with her time of 1 minute, 4.82 seconds. Jacoby won the first semifinal in 1:05.72.
King won her preliminary heat with a time of 1:05.55, but in the semifinal on Sunday, she did not win...for the first time since December 2015. It was Schoenmaker yet again who played spoiler.
"It was a close race, and I've still got a little bit left in the tank for tomorrow," King said on the NBC broadcast. "We always want the last race to be the best race."
The U.S. is looking to win the 100-meter breaststroke in consecutive Olympics for the first time; King could become the first woman ever to win the event multiple times.
King may not win every semifinal on her way to the big event, but don't bet against her; she should still be the one who comes home with gold.
In the men's 100-meter backstroke, American Ryan Murphy is the gold-medal favorite. He holds both the Olympic record and the world record in the event and finished first in his semifinal.
There's no reason to predict that anyone but Murphy will be donning a gold medal around their necks following the conclusion of this event.
In women's tennis, Naomi Osaka defeated Viktorija Golubic in two sets on Sunday in the women's singles second round and plays in the third round on Monday.
In the women's triathlon final on Monday, Americans Taylor Knibb and Summer Rappaport are expected to finish on the podium, but Maya Kingma of the Netherlands is the gold-medal favorite.
As for another of the favorite Olympic sports, gymnastics, the U.S. men's team advanced to the team final...but the road there was rocky. And it's a tall task for the men to land on the podium; their last team medal was at the 2008 Beijing Games.
In these Games, the ROC is favored for gold; China, silver; and Japan, bronze.
Follow all these events and more during Monday's Olympic action.