Olympic schedule 2016: Times and TV schedule for Saturday’s events

With Friday’s Opening Ceremony in the rear-view mirror, the 2016 Olympic Games will get underway with the first full day of competition on Saturday. Here are all the relevant times and television schedule for NBC’s Saturday coverage.

There will be 21 different sports in action, with medal events being held in seven of them. The highest-profile of those medal events will come in swimming, where the men will settle the 400m freestyle and 400m individual medley while the women go for gold in the 400m individual medley and the 4x100m freestyle relay.

Of those four swimming events, the United States earned gold in only one of them in 2012 (China won two, and Australia the other). Ryan Lochte won the men’s 400m IM, but he will not be competing in that event this year after finishing behind Chase Kalisz and Jay Litherland in qualifying.

The U.S. did medal in those other events, though, and a couple of those athletes are returning for another go at it -- Elizabeth Beisel (silver) is back in the women’s 400m IM, while Lia Neal (bronze) is on the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay team once more. Conor Dwyer returns for the men’s 400m freestyle after finishing fifth in London (his teammate won a bronze).

Outside of swimming, Saturday will see the U.S. men’s basketball team play their first preliminary-round game against China. The two teams played in an exhibition game on July 24, with the U.S. cruising to a 106-57 victory. Meanwhile, Australia will oppose France, and Venezuela will take on Serbia. There are also four games on the women’s hoops slate, but the U.S. team will not be among them as they debut on Sunday. However, the U.S. women’s soccer team will be in action, against France in one of the day’s six women’s group stage matches.

In beach volleyball, three-time gold medalist and all-time great Kerri Walsh Jennings is back with a new teammate after the retirement of Misty May-Treanor after the 2012 games. Walsh Jennings now joins up with April Ross, whom she beat in the finals in London, and the duo will play their first qualifying match on Saturday. Over in gymnastics, there will be a full day of qualifying events.

The other six sports holding medal events on Saturday are archery (men’s team), cycling (men’s road race, including recent Tour de France winner Chris Froome), fencing (women’s individual epee), judo (women’s 48kg repechage, men’s 60kg repechage), shooting (women’s 10m air rifle, men’s 10m air pistol), and weightlifting (women’s 48kg).

Regardless of which events you want to watch, NBC will be your destination with coverage throughout the day. Specific broadcast times may vary depending on where you live, but the general schedule for most days will include daytime coverage from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., prime-time from 8 p.m. to midnight, late night from 12:35 a.m. to 1:35 a.m., and replays from 1:35 a.m. to 4:30 a.m (times listed as ET/PT).

They will also have live streams, as well as a run-down of the full day’s schedule with links to each stream, all of which you can find here.

All times Eastern

8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.: Cycling, men’s road race final (Stream)

9:20-10:30 a.m.: Men’s water polo, USA vs. Croatia (Stream)

9:30 a.m.-12 p.m.: Gymnastics, men’s team competition qualifying -- Group 1 (Stream)

12-12:30 p.m.: Women’s rugby, USA vs. Fiji (Stream)

1-4:45 p.m.: Men’s archery, team quarterfinals, semifinals and medal matches (Stream)

1:30-4 p.m.: Gymnastics, men’s team competition qualifying -- Group 2 (Stream)

3:30-4:20 p.m.: Men’s beach volleyball, USA vs. Qatar (Stream)

4-5:45 p.m.: Women’s field hockey, USA vs. Argentina (Stream)

4-5:50 p.m.: Women’s volleyball, USA vs. Puerto Rico (Stream)
4-6 p.m.: Women’s soccer, USA vs. France (Stream)

5-5:30 p.m.: Women’s rugby, USA vs. Colombia (Stream)

5:30-8 p.m.: Gymnastics, men’s team competition qualifying -- Group 3 (Stream)

5:45-8 p.m.: Women’s tennis, first round (Stream)

6-7:45 p.m.: Men’s basketball, USA vs. China (Stream)

10:03-10:11 p.m.: Swimming, men’s 400m IM final (Stream)

10:08-10:21 p.m.: Swimming, men’s 100m breaststroke semifinals (Stream)

10:14-10:27 p.m.: Swimming, women’s 100m butterfly semifinals (Stream)

10:30-10:38 p.m.: Swimming, men’s 400m freestyle final (Stream)

11:24-11:32 p.m.: Swimming, women’s 4x100m freestyle relay final (Stream)

11-11:50 p.m.: Women’s beach volleyball, USA vs. Australia (Stream)