Set the alarm: The 10 moments you can't miss at the Tokyo Olympics

Fintan McCarthy, left, and Paul O'Donovan: Possibly the strongest favourites Ireland has ever had at the Games. Picture: Seb Daly/Sportsfile

Konnichiwa from Tokyo, where it’s every bit as hot and humid as they said, and where there’s a distinctly strange feeling in the air ahead of the Olympic opening ceremony on Friday. There’s anticipation, yes, but it’s more the nervous kind, with no one quite knowing how this will all go, or how it will all feel.

All 33 sports that will play out over the coming 17 days have got well used to playing in front of empty stands over the past 16 months, but it’ll still feel odd to have the same on this stage, one so synonymous with uniting the world.

There will be no tearful sprints into the stands by athletes to celebrate with friends and family, no multinational booze-ups in town squares among fans. This will be a sanitised Games, played out in relative silence. But for over 11,000 athletes — 70% of whom will only get to compete at one Olympics — that it’s going ahead at all is truly what matters. This version remains a whole lot better than the alternative. This is their chance, then, their stage, a project in which they’ve invested years of their lives.

For those of us watching on, a sporting carnival this grand can sometimes feel too big, with a dizzying amount happening all at once. Navigating a successful Games as a spectator requires much the same as it does for athletes: it’s about dedication, priorities, and a willingness to sacrifice.

Many of the best events will be staged in the middle of the night Irish time, so prepare to sacrifice some shuteye if you want to follow them live. For those with actual lives to go about in the next two weeks, it’s about catching what you can when you can. To save you some work on that front, here are 10 things you definitely don’t want to miss.

All times Irish - *pending qualification

1: Katie Ledecky: Women’s 400m freestyle final, Monday, 26 July, 3:20am

In London 2012 Ledecky announced herself to the world by winning the 800m freestyle gold at the age of just 15, and in Rio in 2016 she ascended to the ranks of all-time great, winning four gold medals in the 200m, 400m, and 800m freestyle along with the 4x200m relay.

 Katie Ledecky of the United States competes in the Women's 800m freestyle final during Day Seven of the US Olympic Team Swimming Trials

In Tokyo the 24-year-old American might just go one better with the addition of the 1500m. She will almost certainly coast to victory in the longer events where her world records are out on their own, but in the shorter events she’ll face some stiff opposition from Australia’s Ariarne Titmus.

2: Karsten Warholm and Sydney McLaughlin: Men’s 400m hurdles final, Tuesday, 3 August, 4:20am; Women’s 400m hurdles final, Wednesday, 4 August, 3:30am

It’s an event that doesn’t typically grab the headlines, but currently the must-watch event in athletics is a one-lap race they call the man-killer. In Tokyo both men’s and women’s 400m hurdles fields will gather a cluster of all-time greats and A-list athletics stars. Norway’s Karsten Warholm, the world champion and world record holder, is facing one hell of a battle from US nemesis Rai Benjamin for the men’s title, with Ireland’s Thomas Barr doing his best to stay with them and get into another Olympic final.

The women’s race will see current world and Olympic champion Dalilah Muhammad try to fend off two young superstars in Femke Bol of the Netherlands and US sensation Sydney McLaughlin, the latter recently smashing Muhammad’s world record. Either one could be remembered as the race of the Games.

3: Naomi Osaka: women’s singles tennis

A nation expects, and the question is whether Naomi Osaka is in the right place — physically and mentally — to deliver. The 23-year-old was mostly raised in the US, with a Japanese mother and Haitian father, but she remains the darling of Japanese sport and had long picked out this event as a career target. Question marks linger around her form after withdrawals from the French Open, citing mental health issues, and then Wimbledon.

Naomi Osaka: As seismic a presence off the court as on it.

A four-time Grand Slam singles champion, no current player could really live with Osaka when she was on song in recent years, and she’s been as seismic a presence off the court as on it, raising her voice repeatedly against racism.

4: Kellie Harrington: Women’s lightweight final*, Sunday 8 August, 6am

It’s the one great tragedy of Kellie Harrington’s career that the nation hasn’t truly had the chance to follow her exploits on the road to the top of the world, but in many ways that’s what the Olympics is for. In Tokyo the Dubliner will know she has a captive audience following every jab from afar. If — and it’s a big if —she can make the final, then a showdown will likely await between Harrington, the 2018 world champion, and Brazil’s Beatriz Ferreira, the reigning world champion.

Harrington, as likeable and generous away from bouts as she is clinical and lethal during them, is one of the easiest Irish athletes to cheer for, and one of those most likely to give the public something to cheer about in the weeks ahead.

5: The US men’s basketball team: Gold medal match*, Saturday, 7 August, 3:30am

If you need a reason bigger than Timmy McCarthy’s commentary to tune into Olympic basketball, then here are two more: Kevin Durant and Damian Lillard, A-list stars of the NBA who have taken their talents to Tokyo. The antithesis of each other in terms of physique, they possess the same potent offensive artillery, ranging from downright difficult to straight-up can’t-guard-me, able to splash three-pointers from different postcodes.

Kevin Durant: Likely to inspire US men to their fourth straight Olympic gold.

They will, in all likelihood, lead the US men to their fourth straight Olympic gold, though Spain, France, and Australia should give them something to think about. USA lost a couple of warm-up games but with legendary coach Gregg Popovich in charge and a one-two punch like Lillard and Durant, the rest of the world won’t stand a chance.

6: Eliud Kipchoge: Men’s marathon, Saturday, 7 August, 11pm

For seven years he has ruled the 26.2-mile distance with peerless supremacy, but then at last year’s London Marathon Eliud Kipchoge finally seemed … human. Heavy rain caused a blocked ear that threw off his performance, Kipchoge eventually trailing in eighth. At the Olympics he’ll be desperate to show that rumours of his demise were greatly exaggerated.

The marathons take place in Sapporo, 830km north of Tokyo, where conditions should be slightly less oppressive and if Kipchoge can retain his Olympic crown, then he will firmly enter the debate over the greatest athlete of all time.

7: Sanita Puspure: Women’s single sculls final*, Friday, 30 July, 1:33am

By right she should be slowing down by now, Sanita Puspure approaching her 40th birthday this year, which makes her not your typical champion in an event that hinges on generating maximum power and strength. But Puspure has long been defying the odds and she could well do so again.

What no doubt helped her longevity is that she took several years away from the sport after last competing for Latvia in 2003, returning to it after she relocated to Ireland, where she’s lived for 15 years. She’s the back-to-back world and European champion but the one thing missing from her career is an Olympic medal. This will likely be her only chance at it, and it’s a huge one.

8: Rhys McClenaghan: Men’s pommel horse final*, Sunday 1 August, 10:44am

To the untrained eye, it’s hard to tell the difference between good and great when it comes to an event as technical as the pommel horse. At its heart are the hands, planted and re-arranged in delicate little movements as the gymnast loops his legs around in a wide O that has to be perfectly circular to achieve maximum points.

On Sunday week Rhys McClenaghan might just make experts of us all as we come to grips with difficulty and execution scores, which will be combined to rank his ability against the best in the world – that’s a mantle he’s long aspired to, and one he just might assume.

9: Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy: Men’s lightweight double sculls final*, Thursday, 29 July, 1:50am

It’s well worth setting your alarm — or just staying up — for this as it will likely be one of those Irish Olympic moments you tell the grandkids about. Skibbereen duo Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy go for gold in the men’s lightweight double sculls and, in truth, they go in as possibly the strongest favourites Ireland has ever had at the Games.

Fintan McCarthy, left, and Paul O'Donovan: Possibly the strongest favourites Ireland has ever had at the Games. Picture: Seb Daly/Sportsfile

A lot can go wrong, of course, but they dismissed their chief Olympic rivals to win the European title back in April and the task here is much the same. While the level will naturally go up a notch on this stage, they’re more than capable of rising with it.

10: Simone Biles: Women’s all-around final* (Thursday, 29 July, 11:50am)

A couple of months back, Simone Biles attempted a vault so technically advanced that other gymnasts won’t even try it, proof of the kind of outlier the American is even among her sport’s ultra-elite. The 24-year-old has more world titles than any gymnast in history and won four golds at the 2016 Games in Rio.

She should win that — at least — in Tokyo. Such is her ground-breaking way that four original skills are now named after the pocket-sized American, who brings a level of speed, power, and technical execution that has never been seen before. Enjoy her while she’s around. There may never be another quite like her.