The schedule of swimming events at the 2008 Summer Olympics occurred in two segments: pools events: evening of August 9 through the morning of August 17, at the "Water Cube" open water events: August 20 and 21 at Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park (held between rowing events on the Olympic Rowing course).
For the pool events, prelims were held in the evening, with semifinals/final in the following morning session, with a day between semifinals and finals in those events with semifinals. The shift of the normal morning preliminary heats and evening finals (to evening prelims and morning finals) occurred for the 2008 Olympics due to a request made by USA's broadcaster NBC, so that the finals from the event could be shown "live" in the USA. (Live ended up being 11:00 p.m.-midnight on the East Coast; with a tape delay to the same time for the West Coast.)
Pool schedule dateMorning session Semifinals & Finals (10:00 a.m. local time)Evening session Preliminary heats (6:30 p.m. local time) Saturday August 9 no session men's 400 I.M. (prelims) women's 100 butterfly (prelims) men's 400 freestyle (prelims) women's 400 I.M. (prelims) men's 100 breaststroke (prelims) women's 4x100 Free Relay (prelims) Sunday August 10 men's 400 I.M. (final) women's 100 butterfly (semifinals) men's 400 freestyle (final) women's 400 I.M. (final) men's 100 breaststroke (semifinals) women's 4x100 Free Relay (final) women's 100 backstroke (prelims) men's 200 freestyle (prelims) women's 100 breaststroke (prelims) men's 100 backstroke (prelims) women's 400 freestyle (prelims) men's 4x100 Free Relay (prelims) Monday August 11 women's 100 backstroke (semifinals) men's 200 freestyle (semifinals) women's 100 butterfly (final) men's 100 breaststroke (final) women's 100 breaststroke (semifinals) men's 100 backstroke (semifinals) women's 400 freestyle (final) men's 4x100 Free Relay (final) women's 200 freestyle (prelims) men's 200 butterfly (prelims) women's 200 I.M.(prelims) Tuesday August 12 women's 200 freestyle (semifinals) men's 200 freestyle (final) women's 100 backstroke (final) men's 100 backstroke (final) women's 100 breaststroke (final) men's 200 butterfly (semifinals) women's 200 I.M.(semifinals & swim-off) men's 100 freestyle (prelims) women's 200 butterfly (prelims) men's 200 breaststroke (prelims) men's 4x200 Free Relay (prelims) Wednesday August 13 men's 100 freestyle (semifinals) women's 200 freestyle (final) men's 200 butterfly (final) women's 200 butterfly (semifinals) men's 200 breaststroke (semifinals) women's 200 I.M. (final) men's 4x200 Free Relay (final) women's 100 freestyle (prelims) men's 200 backstroke (prelims) women's 200 breaststroke (prelims) men's 200 I.M. (prelims) women's 4x200 Free Relay (prelims) Thursday August 14 men's 200 breaststroke (final) women's 100 freestyle (semifinals) men's 200 backstroke (semifinals) women's 200 butterfly (final) men's 100 freestyle (final) women's 200 breaststroke (semifinals) men's 200 I.M. (semifinals) women's 4x200 Free Relay (final) men's 50 freestyle (prelims) women's 800 freestyle (prelims) men's 100 butterfly (prelims) women's 200 backstroke (prelims) Friday August 15 men's 50 freestyle (semifinals) women's 200 breaststroke (final) men's 200 backstroke (final) women's 200 backstroke (semifinals) men's 200 I.M. (final) women's 100 freestyle (final) men's 100 butterfly (semifinals) women's 50 freestyle (prelims) men's 1500 freestyle (prelims) women's 4×100 medley relay (prelims) men's 4×100 medley relay (prelims)Saturday August 16 women's 200 backstroke (final) men's 100 butterfly (final) women's 800 freestyle (final) men's 50 freestyle (final) women's 50 freestyle (semifinals) no session (all preliminary heats completed)Sunday August 17 women's 50 free (final) men's 1500 freestyle (final) women's 4×100 medley relay (final) men's 4×100 medley relay (final) no session (all events concluded)
Open Water schedule dateEvent (9:00 a.m. local time) Wednesday August 20 Women's Marathon 10K Thursday August 21 Men's Marathon 10K
References
Swimming schedule 2008 Olympics website; retrieved 2009-06-02.