Getty American gymnast Laurie Hernandez.
Indianapolis’s Indiana Convention Center will host the 2021 Winter Cup, an annual competition for American gymnasts, from Friday through Sunday.
The men’s competition (Friday, 7:30 p.m. ET) will be on NBC Sports Network, and the women’s competition (Saturday, 12:30 p.m. ET) will be on NBC. But if you don’t have cable, here are some different ways you can watch a live stream of the 2021 Winter Cup online for free.
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FuboTV
You can watch a live stream of NBC (live in most markets), NBC Sports Network and 100-plus other TV channels on FuboTV, which comes with a free seven-day trial:
Once signed up for FuboTV, you can watch the 2021 Winter Cup live on the FuboTV app, which is available on your Roku, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV or Fire Stick, Apple TV, Chromecast, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV, Android TV, iPhone, Android phone, iPad or Android tablet. Or you can watch on your computer via the FuboTV website.
If you can’t watch live, FuboTV also comes with 250 hours of cloud DVR space, as well as a 72-hour look-back feature, which allows you to re-watch most events within three days of their conclusion, even if you don’t record them.
AT&T TV
Every AT&T TV channel package includes NBC (live in most markets) and NBC Sports Network, but the “Choice” and above packages also come with HBO Max and NBA League Pass, the best perk any streaming service is offering right now. You can pick any package and any add-on you want with your free 14-day trial.
Note that the free trial isn’t advertised as such, but when you sign up and select whatever bundle and extras you want, you’ll see that — if you’re a new customer — the “due today” amount is $0. You won’t be charged for 14 days, and you can cancel at any time:
Once signed up for AT&T TV, you can watch the 2021 Winter Cup live on the AT&T TV app, which is available on your Roku, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV or Fire Stick, Apple TV, Chromecast, Samsung Smart TV, iPhone, Android phone, iPad or Android tablet. Or you can watch on your computer via the AT&T TV website.
If you can’t watch live, AT&T TV also comes with 20 hours of Cloud DVR storage (with the ability to upgrade to 500 hours).
Sling TV
You can watch a live stream of NBC (live in select markets), NBC Sports Network and 40-plus other TV channels via Sling TV’s “Sling Blue” package. This option doesn’t include a free trial, but it’s the cheapest streaming service with the NBC channels, and you can get your first month for just $10:
Once signed up for Sling TV, you can watch the 2021 Winter Cup live on the Sling TV app, which is available on your Roku, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV or Fire Stick, Apple TV, Chromecast, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV, LG Smart TV, Android TV, airTV Mini, Oculus, Portal, iPhone, Android phone, iPad or Android tablet. Or you can watch on your computer via the Sling TV website.
If you can’t watch live, Sling TV comes included with 10 hours of cloud DVR.
Hulu With Live TV
You can watch a live stream of NBC (live in most markets), NBC Sports Network and 65+ other TV channels via Hulu With Live TV, which you can try out for free with a seven-day trial:
Once signed up for Hulu With Live TV, you can watch the 2021 Winter Cup live on the Hulu app, which is available on your Roku, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV or Fire Stick, Apple TV, Chromecast, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Samsung Smart TV, LG Smart TV, Android TV, iPhone, Android phone, iPad or Android tablet. Or you can watch on your computer via the Hulu website.
If you can’t watch live, Hulu with Live TV also comes with 50 hours of Cloud DVR storage (with the ability to upgrade to “Enhanced Cloud DVR,” which gives you 200 hours of DVR space and the ability to fast forward through commercials).
Winter Cup 2021 Preview
The 2021 Winter Cup will feature women competitors for the first time in the event’s history.
Among the field of women is Laurie Hernandez, who hasn’t competed since she won a gold medal and a silver medal as a 16-year-old at the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
“I’d like to see how [a meet] feels as an almost 21-year-old rather than competing at 16,” she recently told NBC Sports. “It’s going to be different, I’m well aware.”
For other gymnasts, the Winter Cup marks the first high-level gymnastics meet in almost a year. It’s also a key preparatory step toward the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo.
“It’s important, but it doesn’t really dictate who’s going to the Super Bowl,” said US women’s team high-performance director Tom Forster, per NBC Sports. “What you use this for, and Laurie’s doing a good job of using it appropriately, [is to] get the cobwebs out of what it’s like to be in a competition again.
“I’m encouraging them to use it as an opportunity to see the routine structure that you have going right now. Skills and connections, are they working? And if they’re not working, then this is when you want to know that. If you’re going to make mistakes, now is the time to do that so you can really work those bugs out.”
Hernandez started training full-time again in 2018 with an eye toward returning to the Olympics, which at the time was two years away. In March of last year, the Tokyo Organizing Committee and the International Olympic Committee announced the Games would be pushed back to 2021.
“I knew I was late,” Hernandez told the Olympic Channel in April. “We knew it was going to be a really short amount of time. It feels for me like I’m going to be a lot more prepared. It’s comforting, more time. It’s all anybody could really ask for, I think.”
Yul Moldauer headlines the Winter Cup’s field of men. The 24-year-old’s claimed 11 medals across the last three national championships, including two golds. He took bronze in the floor exercise at the 2017 world championships in Montreal.
Two years removed from his decorated career at the University of Oklahoma, Moldauer’s had to re-create the intensity of high-level competition in his training sessions.
“You can train routines all day long,” he said, according to The Washington Post, “but it’s up to you to put yourself in that situation to make it feel like a meet.”