The lack of an Olympics or a soccer World Cup deprives next year of a single global focus for sports fans, but a rich calendar of international events has more than enough world-class action to satiate even the most refined palate.
Tens of millions of cricket obsessives in South Asia will ensure plenty of eyeballs on the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, while rugby’s equivalent is among many contenders for the title of the world’s third-biggest tournament.
The Tour de France, with a worldwide TV audience of 3.5 billion people every year, will be a battle royale between defending champion Vincenzo nibali, Alberto Contador, Chris Froome and Nairo Quintana in July.
The burgeoning popularity of European club soccer shows no sign of abating, but men’s international soccer honors next year will be confined to regional championships in Asia and Africa, as well as South, Central and North America.
However, the finest female soccer players from all five continents will gather in Canada in June and July to contest the seventh women’s World Cup, with Germany and the US the early favorites.
The Olympic program is on furlough, but not so the athletes, who compete in world championships in track and field, swimming and a host of other sports as they embark on a trail they hope will climax with gold at the Rio de Janeiro Games in 2016.
The July 24 to Aug. 9 swimming championships in the Russian city of Kazan will be without the biggest name in the sport after 18-times Olympic gold medallist Michael Phelps was kicked off the US team in the wake of a drunk driving arrest.
However, Usain Bolt looks certain to be back where it all began for him at the athletics world championships at Beijing’s Birds Nest, the venue for his stunning 100m and 200m victories in world record times at the 2008 Olympics.
Seven years on and the Jamaican sprinter, who will turn 29 the day before the championships begin on Aug. 22, remains his sport’s trump card as one of the few athletes to enjoy a truly global profile.
There will be much interest in whether two other members of that elite club, golfer Tiger Woods and tennis maestro Roger Federer, can arrest signs of decline and maintain their place at the top table on grounds of form, rather than reputation.
Woods won the last of his 14 major titles two months before Bolt’s Beijing triumph and Rory McIlroy could go some way to replacing him as the face of golf if he can become the sixth player to win a career Grand Slam at the US Masters in April.
Federer has won just one major title, his 17th, in the past four seasons and starts his year as always in Australia, which dominates the first quarter of next year’s international sporting calendar.
As well as the Australian Open tennis, the country hosts soccer’s Asian Cup, the opening race in what looks to be an intriguing Formula One season and the cricket World Cup.
Australia have won four of the 10 cricket World Cups and will be confident of a fifth title on home soil from Feb. 14 to March 29, with reigning champions India and South Africa the most likely to stop them.
New Zealand have won just two of the seven rugby World Cups — both on home soil — but still go in as favorites to lift the Webb Ellis Trophy every four years and the Sept. 18 to Oct. 31 tournament in England is no exception.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
The Minnesota Timberwolves, with so many promising performances spoiled by late mistakes fresh in their memory bank, sure timed this strong finish well. Jaden McDaniels scored a career playoff-high 30 points and spearheaded Minnesota’s stifling defense on an ailing Luka Doncic, and the Timberwolves beat the Los Angeles Lakers 116-104 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Friday night. “Jaden never looks tired. He looks like he could play 48 minutes,” said teammate Anthony Edwards, who had 29 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Julius Randle added 22 points for the Wolves, who outscored
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
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