Whether it’s heart-pounding races between the fastest people in the world or watching incredible high jump and pole vault maneuvers, track and field — aka “Athletics” — has to be one of the most satisfying parts of the summer games to watch. And as the finals approach, the events become more and more exciting: Top contenders like Noah Lyles, Erriyon Knighton, Gabby Thomas, and Ryan Crouser all have their eyes on medals.
In the next couple of weeks, you can expect to see wide coverage of Athletics, but here are some of the dates and times for finals of key events (all times Eastern).
Sprints
- Women’s 100m Final — Saturday, July 31, 8:50 a.m.
- Men’s 100m Final — Sunday, Aug. 1, 8:50 a.m
- Women’s 200m Final — Tuesday, Aug. 3, 8:50 a.m.
- Men’s 200m Final — Wednesday, Aug. 4, 8:55 a.m.
- Women’s 400m Final — Friday, Aug. 6, 8:35 a.m.
- Men’s 400m Final — Thursday, Aug. 5, 8:00 a.m.
Middle-distance running
- Women’s 800m Final — Tuesday, Aug. 3, 8:25 a.m.
- Men’s 800m Final — Wednesday, Aug. 4, 8:05 a.m
- Women’s 1500m Final — Friday, Aug. 6, 8:50 a.m.
- Men’s 1500m Final — Saturday, Aug. 7, 7:40 a.m.
- Women’s 5000m Final — Monday, Aug. 2, 8:40 a.m.
- Men’s 5000m Final — Friday, Aug. 6, 8:00 a.m.
Relay
- Mixed 4 x 400m Relay Final — Saturday, July 31, 8:35 a.m.
- Women’s 4 x 100m Relay Final — Friday, Aug. 6, 9:30 a.m.
- Men’s 4 x 100m Relay Final — Friday, Aug. 6, 9:50 a.m.
- Women’s 4 x 400m Relay Final — Saturday, Aug. 7, 8:30 a.m.
- Men’s 4 x 400m Relay Final – Saturday, Aug. 7, 8:50 a.m.
Marathon
- Women’s Marathon — Friday, Aug. 6, 6:00 p.m.
- Men’s Marathon, Saturday, Aug. 7, 6:00 p.m.
Long Jump
- Women’s Long Jump Final — Monday, Aug. 2, 9:50 p.m.
- Men’s Long Jump Final — Sunday, Aug. 1, 9:20 p.m.
High Jump
- Women’s High Jump Final — Saturday, Aug. 7, 6:35 a.m.
- Men’s High Jump Final — Sunday, Aug. 1, 6:10 a.m.
Pole Vault
- Women’s Pole Vault Final — Thursday, Aug. 5, 6:20 a.m
- Men’s Pole Vault Final — Tuesday, Aug. 3, 6:20 a.m.
If you want to see the results live, you need to know where to watch! To help out, our guide is going through what you need to do to watch the track and field events at the Tokyo Games, your options for watching online, and what may work best in your situation.
The NBC Olympics website
For watching events like track and field live, NBC’s Olympics Website is the best place to begin. There are live feeds showing events from the games as they happen, making it a great spot to find what you’re most interested in and see what’s happening right now. (If you’re watching live, always double-check the specific times of the races and other events you’re interested in.)
The site also provides highlights, recaps, and roundups that make it easy to follow summer games’ action and keep up on events you may have missed. But there’s one big caveat — free casual viewing is limited to a 30-minute “Temporary Pass” that will end the stream when it expires. To get around this, you need to sign in with your specific NBC provider, which means you need a subscription via Xfinity, Verizon, Dish, AT&T, Cox, Spectrum, or one of the other providers of NBC coverage.
NBC Primetime on TV
NBC Primetime is a roundup and replay of the important Olympic events, making the NBC channel a great place to watch the most exciting races, vaults, and shot puts. All you need is a provider — like those we mentioned above — that offers NBC as a channel you can view. It’s available through a wide variety of cable subscriptions and streaming packages from places like Sling TV.
Primetime is not the best way to watch live events. However, because of the big time zone difference between Tokyo and the United States, you may find the field/track events you want to watch are happening in the middle of the night. Primetime is an ideal solution to view important footage that you can’t watch live for whatever reason — and that’s specifically great for watching the finals.
The NBC Sports app
The NBC Sports app is a free app that, similar to the Olympics website, is also packed with summer games coverage. As with the site itself, you’ll need to sign in with your provider to access everything, but it’s an excellent solution for watching the games on the go, catching up on races during your commute, and so on.
You can download the app here for your device. The NBC Sports app is available on pretty much everything, including iOS, Android, Roku, Samsung, Chromecast, and Xbox.
NBC’s Peacock app
NBC’s Peacock app is a notable alternative to the NBC Sports app. First, it does not require a provider that offers NBC, since NBC is offering it directly, so it’s a great place to watch if you want nothing to do with cable. Second, unlike many streaming apps, there is a free tier, and that tier does include plenty of Olympics coverage.
Hulu
Hulu also has deals that allow it to show live Olympics footage from its own streaming service, including live track and field events. However, you need the Hulu Live TV plan in order to access NBC’s channel. The good news is that Hulu is currently offering free trials for its Live TV service that last for seven days, so you can watch the Olympics for free if you cancel at the appropriate time.
YouTube TV
The big advantage of YouTube TV’s streaming is that it’s available to anyone, pretty much anywhere. No matter what platform you are on, there’s a way to get to YouTube, and the YouTube TV service is offering its own options for a variety of Tokyo Games content.
YouTube TV does require a subscription, but the service is currently offering a 14-day free trial, which should be enough to catch the entirety of the track and field events right down to the finals if you prefer.
FuboTV
Similar to Hulu, fuboTV also offers a way to stream Olympics content, and you can also start a free trial (seven days) right in time to catch your favorite track and field events. FuboTV is also a good pick because it offers free Cloud DVR to capture live events that you may not be able to see right away — plus, if you live in a major metropolitan area, you may be able to access 4K summer games content to enjoy even more detail.
Prefer to watch the summer games in glorious 4K detail? We have a more thorough guide on just what that takes here.
