How to Watch the Tokyo Summer Olympics for Free, and Other Tips

Although they’re a bit different this year, the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games are back in full force after having been postponed due to COVID-19. All over the capital, neighbors are cheering and their TVs are blasting, the Games are a hot topic of discussion, and social media feeds are flowing with information. Whether you’re an avowed sports fan or simply someone who wants to know what all the hype is about, here are four ways to get in the Olympic spirit.

A week ago, YouTube was serving up a steady stream of funny cat videos. Now, everything on the recommended page is all about the Tokyo Summer Olympics. The same goes for just about every other social media account. So save yourself the trouble and download the Tencent Sport (腾讯体育 téng xùn tǐ yù) app on your devices (especially your phone) to access the livestreams of the games. With so many sports overlapping one another, make sure you scroll through the schedule to catch the ones you want to see most. You can also check the competitors’ schedules in case there’s a specific athlete you want to see.

If you already have WeChat on your device, then you can skip Tencent. WeChat’s Top Story section also allows you to access The Olympic livestreams, see each country’s status, and the competitor’s line-up.

So, all your friends are raving about how China just won the diving competition, and how we’re dominating table tennis this year. But you have no clue? Don’t worry, Tencent Sport and WeChat also have all the stats, so you can be the first to tell your friends about China’s newest shiny gold medal. The reporting comes through in real time, so as soon as someone earns a medal, the rankings change. For example, if you clicked on WeChat’s Top Story and opened the ranking window, you’ll see that China, Japan, and the US are at the top of the leaderboard, for now.

Tokyo’s Summer Olympics features a total of 33 sports with 206 participating countries. Popular sports such as archery, aquatics (which includes swimming, diving, water polo, and synchronized swimming), table tennis, basketball (including 3×3 basketball), and volleyball (both indoor and beach-volleyball) are included in the list. However, all of the lesser-known sports like surfing, Judo, kayaking, and cycling can also be found. Last but not least, for the first time in history, the Olympic organizing committee introduced skateboarding as a sport. So get ready to see some of your favorite skateboarders make history!

The Games opened on Jul 23 and will close on Aug 8. But the actual competitions kicked off two days before the Opening Ceremony with softball in Fukushima – in line with the Games’ theme of recovery. This year’s Olympics features 339 medal events and 42 venues. There are fewer competitions on the opening and closing days, however, the rest of the schedule is jam-packed with different sports that you can tune into.

With these four tips, we hope you enjoy the Tokyo 2020 (2021?) Summer Olympic Games, and are super jazzed about next year’s Winter Olympic Games right here in Beijing. Friendly reminder, there might be some heavy displays of patriotism happening this season, but don’t take anything too seriously. Just cheer very loudly for your home country or any other than you have an affinity for, and be a good sport about it.

Images: XueFei Liu, Sina Weibo

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