The Best Apps for Following the Olympics

The Olympics are a beautiful, chaotic mess. Trying to track everything from fencing to the 100-meter dash feels like a full-time job. You can have the TV on, but what about the events that don't get the prime-time slot?

Your first download should be the official "Olympics" app. It's made by the IOC, so it has the most reliable, up-to-the-second info. You can set it to follow your home country, specific athletes, or just the sports you care about. If all you want is Greco-Roman wrestling and updates on your cousin competing for Team USA, you can do that. The app is your source for medal results, schedules, and news. For the Paris 2024 games, they’ve also added a map and ticket management for anyone lucky enough to be there in person.

But the official app isn't where you'll do most of your watching.

For live streaming, you’ll need an app from one of the major sports broadcasters. In the U.S., that means getting the NBC Sports or Peacock TV apps. You’ll probably need a cable login to unlock everything on NBC Sports, but it’s the only way to watch every single event as it happens.

Your Two-App System

The best setup is using two apps. The official one is for the raw data—schedules and medal counts. But an app like ESPN adds a layer of analysis and storytelling that the official feed lacks.

I learned this the hard way during the 2016 Rio games. I was trying to follow the men's road cycling race, and while the official app told me who was in the lead, the broadcast kept cutting away to other events. I was sitting in my 2011 Honda Civic at 7:13 PM, waiting for a takeout order and frantically refreshing Twitter to get real-time updates from journalists on the ground. It was a mess.

Today, you can get that live-blog commentary in the main app, but the principle is the same: you need more than one source.

And for the events you absolutely cannot miss, it helps to set your own alerts. You could use a simple habit tracker like Trider to plug in reminders for the whole two weeks of the games. It's a good way to make sure you don’t miss that 3 AM preliminary heat you’ve been waiting for.

There isn't one perfect app. The official "Olympics" app is your best bet for a central hub of information. But to actually watch the games live, you'll need to pair it with an app from a major sports network.