Four athletes from Montgomery County will compete at the Olympics this month as part of Team USA. A fifth is on the team as an alternate.
Superstar Olympians Katie Ledecky, a swimmer, and Helen Maroulis, a wrestler, return to the world stage this month. Three rookies — swimmers Phoebe Bacon and Andrew Wilson and gymnast Kayla DiCello, who is an alternate — will experience their first Olympics.
The games will last 17 days, beginning with the opening ceremony on July 23 and ending with the closing ceremony on Aug. 8.
How to watch the games
All of the action will be on NBC station for primetime coverage. NBC is the official Olympic broadcaster in the U.S.
The Olympic Channel, CNBC, NBC Sports Channel, USA, the Golf Channel, and Telemundo will also feature Olympic coverage.
Aside from cable TV, there are other ways to tune in. Viewers can stream the games on NBCOlympics.com, the NBC Sports app, and the streaming service Peacock.
Swimming: Ledecky, Bacon, Wilson
Olympic swimming events will start on July 24 and end on Aug 4.
Three swimmers from Montgomery County are on Team USA — three-time Olympian Katie Ledecky and rookies Phoebe Bacon and Andrew Wilson.
Ledecky, 24, a five-time Olympic gold medalist from Bethesda, has dominated women’s competitive swimming since she was a teen.
At Tokyo, she will compete in the 200-meter, 400-meter-, 800-meter and 1,500-meter freestyle races. She will also be part of the 4 x 200-meter relay event.
This year’s Olympics will be the first time the 1,500-meter freestyle event will be held for women swimmers. During the Olympic swimming trials, Ledecky dominated the 1,500-meter race and cruised to first place with a time of 15:40.50.
Bacon, 18, from Chevy Chase, makes her Olympic debut in the 200-meter backstroke. She recently finished her freshman year in college at Wisconsin University, where she was part of the swim team.
Both Ledecky and Bacon attended school at Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart, and crossed paths at Stone Ridge while growing up. This year, they will compete together as teammates.
Another rookie Olympian for Team USA is Andrew Wilson, who grew up in Bethesda. Wilson, 27, who attended Emory University, is heralded as the first NCAA Division III swimmer to qualify for the Olympic swimming team.
Wilson will swim the 100- and 200-meter breaststroke races.
The schedule to watch Montgomery County swimmers:
July 24
- Men’s 100m breaststroke, heats
July 25
- Women’s 400m freestyle, heats
- Men’s 100m breaststroke, final
- Women’s 400m freestyle, final
July 26
- Women’s 200m freestyle, heats
- Women’s 1500m freestyle, heats
July 27
- Men’s 200m breaststroke, heats
- Women’s 200m freestyle, semifinals
- Men’s 200m breaststroke, semifinals
- Women’s 1500m freestyle, final
July 28
- Women’s 4x200m freestyle relay, heats
- Men’s 200m breaststroke, final
- Women’s 4x200m freestyle relay, final
- Women’s 200m freestyle, final
July 29
- Women’s 800m freestyle, heats
- Women’s 200m backstroke, heats
- Women’s 200m backstroke, semifinals
July 30
- Women’s 200m backstroke, final
- Women’s 800m freestyle, final
Wrestling: Maroulis
For Helen Maroulis, a freestyle wrestler from Rockville, Tokyo will be her second Olympics.
At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Maroulis, 29, became the first American woman to win an Olympic wrestling gold medal.
Maroulis will try to defend her position as the number one Olympic wrestler in the 53kg weight class.
Maroulis began wrestling at 7 years old and continued to wrestle in high school at Col. Zadok Magruder High School. At Magruder, she became the first girl to place in the boys Maryland Wrestling State Championship.
The Women’s freestyle (53kg) wrestling schedule is:
Aug 5
- 1/8 Finals
- 1/4 Finals
- Semifinals
Aug 6
- Repechage
- Bronze-medal matches
- Final
Gymnastics: DiCello
Kayla DiCello, 17, a star gymnast from Boyds, is heading to Tokyo as an alternate for the women’s Olympic team. DiCello will train and prepare as though she will be in the competition, but will not compete unless another gymnast on the team is sick or injured before the start of the competition.
DiCello is a rising senior at Northwest High School and trains at Hill’s Gymnastics in Gaithersburg.
The competing members of the team are Simon Biles, Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles and Grace McCallum. Besides DiCello, there are three additional alternates this year — Leanne Wong, Kara Eaker and Emma Malabuyo.
Typically, two gymnasts are chosen as alternates, but as a cautionary step in light of COVID-19, four alternates were chosen.
The women’s Olympic gymnastics schedule is:
July 25
- Qualifications day
July 27
- Team final
July 29
- All-around final
Aug. 1
- Vault/Uneven bars
Aug. 2
- Floor exercise
Aug. 3
- Balance beam
View NBC’s full Olympic broadcasting schedule online for broadcasting times. Japan is 13 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time.