Chronological summary of the 2020 Summer Olympics

This is a chronological summary of the major events of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, which was postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The first matches in the group stages of the football and softball events was held on 21 July. The opening ceremony was scheduled two days later on 23 July. The last day of competition and the closing ceremony was on 8 August. However, the Games was referred to by its original date in all scheduled events in order to avoid confusion in future years. With the area under a state of emergency because of the pandemic, the Games were held largely behind closed doors with no spectators permitted.

The games featured 339 events in 33 different sports, encompassing a total of 50 disciplines. The 2020 Games saw the introduction of new competitions including 3x3 basketball, freestyle BMX, and madison cycling, in the latter case for women (the men's version was held between 2000 and 2008 before returning in these games), as well as further mixed events. These Games also saw karate, sport climbing, surfing, and skateboarding make their Olympic debuts, as well as the return of baseball and softball for the first time since 2008.

About 206 teams were expected to participate. This was the first Olympics since the June 2018 signing of the Prespa agreement between Greece and the Republic of Macedonia over the "Macedonia" naming dispute, resulting in the latter officially being renamed North Macedonia. This was also the second consecutive Summer Olympics that selected independent Olympic participants to compete under the Olympic Flag as part of the "Refugee Olympic Team". As a result of the 2020 ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on the Russian doping scandal, Russian athletes competed under the acronym "ROC" after the name of the Russian Olympic Committee, and under the flag of the Russian Olympic Committee.

Calendar
The 2020 schedule by session was approved by the IOC Executive Board on 18 July 2018, with the exception of swimming, diving, and artistic swimming. A more detailed schedule by event was released on 16 April 2019, still omitting a detailed schedule for the boxing events. A detailed boxing schedule was released in late 2019.

The original schedule was from 22 July to 9 August 2020. To postpone the Olympics until 2021, all events were delayed by 364 days (one day less than a full year to preserve the same days of the week), giving a new schedule of 21 July to 8 August 2021.


 * All times and dates use Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)



Day (-2) — Wednesday 21 July

 * Football pictogram.svg Football
 * The first matches in the group stage of the women's tournament were played.


 * Softball pictogram.svg Softball
 * Group stage begins.

Day (-1) — Thursday 22 July

 * Football pictogram.svg Football
 * The first matches in the group stage of the Men's tournament were played.


 * Softball pictogram.svg Softball
 * Second day of the group stages.

Day 0 — Friday 23 July

 * Archery pictogram.svg Archery
 * The ranking round in both the men's individual competition and the women's individual competition took place.


 * Rowing pictogram.svg Rowing
 * The heats in the men's single sculls, women's single sculls, men's double sculls, women's double sculls, men's quadruple sculls and women's quadruple sculls took place.


 * Olympic Rings Icon.svg Opening ceremony
 * The opening ceremony was held at Japan National Stadium at 20:00 JST (UTC+9).

Day 4 — Tuesday 27 July
* Simone Biles withdrew from the finals.

Day 16 — Sunday 8 August

 * Olympic Rings Icon.svg Closing ceremony
 * At Japan National Stadium. It included the traditional Olympic flag handover to Paris, France, the host city of the next Summer Olympics in 2024.