Swimming at the 2020 Summer Olympics

Unlike the previous Olympics, swimming program schedule will occur in two segments. For the pool events, prelims will be held in the evening, with semifinals and final in the following morning session, spanning a day between semifinals and finals in those events with semifinals. The shift of the normal morning prelims and evening finals (to evening prelims and morning finals) will occur for these Games because of the prior request made by US broadcaster NBC (due to the substantial fees NBC has paid for rights to the Olympics, the IOC has allowed NBC to have influence on event scheduling to maximize U.S. television ratings when possible; NBC agreed to a $7.75 billion contract extension on May 7, 2014, to air the Olympics through the 2032 games,[2] is also one of the major sources of revenue for the IOC),[3] so that the finals from the event could be shown live in the United States.[4][5]

FINA will establish qualifying times for individual events. The time standards consisted of two types: an "Olympic Qualifying Time" (OQT) and an "Olympic Selection time" (OST). Each country was able to enter up to two swimmers per event, provided both swimmers met the (faster) qualifying time. A country was able to enter one swimmer per event that met the invitation standard. Any swimmer who met the "qualifying" time was entered in the event for the Games; a swimmer meeting the "invitation" standard was eligible for entry, and their entry was allotted/filled in by ranking. If a country has no swimmers who meet either of the qualifying standards, it may have entered one male and one female. A country that did not receive an allocation spot but had at least one swimmer who met a qualifying standard might have entered the swimmer with the highest ranking.[9]

Each relay event features 16 teams, composed of:[9]

• 12: the top-12 finishers at the 2019 World Championships in each relay event.
• 4: the 4 fastest non-qualified teams, based on times in the 15-months preceding the Olympics.

The men's and women's 10 km races featured 25 swimmers:[9]

• 10: the top-10 finishers in the 10 km races at the 2019 World Championships
• 9: the top-9 finishers at the 2020 Olympic Marathon Swim Qualifier
• 5: one representative from each FINA continent (Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania).
• 1: from the host nation (Japan) if not qualified by other means. If Japan already contained a qualifier in the race, this spot had been allocated back into the general pool from the 2020 Olympic qualifier race.

Japan, as the host country, receives guaranteed quota place in case it would not qualify any qualification places.

^a Swimmers who participated in the heats only and received medals.

^b Swimmers who participated in the heats only and received medals.

^b Swimmers who participated in the heats only and received medals.