With the World Cup, Winter Olympics and Commonwealth Games among the highlights, 2026 promises to be another thrilling year in sport.
Nick Metcalfe is relishing the prospect of the next 12 months and looks ahead to a number of special events to come in this festive feature. Here is part two and if you missed it, you can click here for part one.
World Cup
- June 11-July 19
The undisputed biggest deal in sport in the next 12 months, and probably by a long way. This may sound a bit silly when you consider we're talking about the most significant event in the world's favourite sport, but I'm not convinced everyone is aware of quite how mammoth the 2026 World Cup is going to be. For starters, the geography is startling, with matches being played across the United States, Canada and Mexico. Then there's the number of teams, up from 32 to 48. We'll have four games a day for a fortnight, a whole extra round and a tournament that lasts five-and-a-half weeks. It will take over everything. England go into these jamborees with genuine live chances these days, not just misplaced hope. Their recent tournament record is very good, including reaching the last two Euros finals. Mind you, whether Thomas Tuchel's players are really up to the travails of this extended event after such a long season – with concerns over extreme heat in some cities – remains to be seen. Scotland face Brazil in their group, a story we've seen plenty of times before, as Steve Clarke's men aim to make history and qualify for the knockout stages. As for the winners? Plenty of the usual suspects are lining up, among them defending champions Argentina, 2018 winners France, European champions Spain and arguably the most romantic football nation of them all, five-time winners Brazil.
Wimbledon
- June 29-July 12
New balls please. Men's Grand Slam tennis has turned into the Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner show lately. Don't be at all surprised if they're the last men standing again on Centre Court on July 12. Sinner got the better of Alcaraz in the 2025 final at the All England Club, three weeks after Alcaraz won an epic French Open final between the pair. The rivals then met in September's US Open final, with Alcaraz coming out on top. Britain's Jack Draper will hope to be fully fit and firing for SW19, after the disappointment of his second-round exit last summer. On the women's side, things are far less predictable. Amazingly, there have been nine different champions in a row. Mind you, there is one call I can make with confidence. We'll see a closer final than we did in the 2025 showpiece, when Iga Swiatek remarkably beat Amanda Anisimova 6-0, 6-0.
Tour de France
- July 4-26
The Tour de France has a habit of not starting in France these days and the 2026 edition of this epic three-week spectacular could hardly have a grander setting for its opening – the beautiful city of Barcelona. The number one question surely has to be, who on earth can stop Tadej Pogacar? The Slovenian is now a four-time Tour winner, and will be going for three in a row. Some seriously good judges now believe Pogacar is on the way to being the greatest cyclist of all time. Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard is himself an outstanding competitor – twice a Tour winner and runner-up in 2025. But truthfully, it never really looked likely that Pogacar would be denied last July and Vingegaard will be desperate to put up a stronger challenge this time round.
British Grand Prix
- July 5
Huge crowds will once again be at Silverstone, as the 11th race of 24 in a long Formula One season takes place in deepest Northamptonshire. Home fans will have a world champion in their midst to cheer on, with Lando Norris dramatically fending off a late charge from Max Verstappen to claim the 2025 title. Norris, who was victorious at the British Grand Prix last summer, is likely to face stiff competition again from his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri and four-time world champion Verstappen. Meanwhile, how will Lewis Hamilton – winner of the British Grand Prix a record nine times – be faring come July, 2026? Hamilton's place in F1 history is well and truly assured, with seven world titles in the books, but the Ferrari driver has regularly cut a frustrated figure over recent months.
Open Championship
- July 16-19
Birkdale is widely considered to be one of the greatest courses in the UK. When it last staged the Open Championship in 2017 it produced a glorious finish, when a magical closing stretch from Jordan Spieth was enough to see off the challenge of Matt Kuchar. I followed Spieth round that day and it's an indelible memory. Another American, Scottie Scheffler, will be defending the title after his superlative victory at Royal Portrush last summer. There's no prizes for guessing who would give the locals on Merseyside the most popular victory. Southport man Tommy Fleetwood used to sneak onto the course to play as a boy. He certainly merits a major victory in his career – if it happens here, you might see the word 'fairytale' used a world record number of times.
Commonwealth Games
- July 23-August 2
The mood music around the Commonwealth Games not so long ago was pretty bleak. It almost felt like last rites territory. Yet things can quickly change. There's already a host in place for 2030 – Ahmedabad in India – while Glasgow has stepped into the breach to stage a slimmed down event in 2026, just 12 years after it was the setting for a memorable 2014 Games. It's a curious event this one – it can be easy to dismiss it as Olympics-lite, but when you actually properly engage with it, there's usually much to enjoy. Among the track and field athletes we can look forward to watching is England's Jake Wightman, 2022 world 1500m champion, who is set to compete in the mile. There will be a right old din at the swimming pool when Scotland's Duncan Scott – who won a hatful of medals at the last two Olympics in Tokyo and Paris – goes for glory. Among the many para stars in action will be brilliant Welsh athlete Olivia Breen, who already has long jump and sprint golds from the last two Commonwealth Games.
European Athletics Championships
- August 10-16
There was much to admire about the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, with the highlight for many fans being the athletics and a superb setting at the Alexander Stadium. I was there for the final night and the atmosphere was genuinely special. It's great news that a major meet is taking place there again so soon. A number of Britain's biggest stars will hopefully be competing on home soil, including Olympic 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson, multiple European sprint champion Dina Asher-Smith and Matthew Hudson-Smith, whose successes include 400m gold at the European Championships of 2018 and 2022. If you're thinking about attending, I say go for it. I have a feeling it will be one of the hits of the sporting year.
Rugby League World Cup
- October 15-November 15
Rugby league faces a perennial battle for attention, but the World Cup tends to cut through to the mainstream and having all the tournaments – men's, women's, wheelchair – played at the same time has been a masterstroke. England's men seemed miles away from Australia in the recent Ashes series and it's hard to see how they can make up that much ground by next autumn when the 2026 World Cup is played in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. The women's game is also dominated by Australia – they've won the last three tournaments. England's group match against Samoa could well be a decisive one, with both teams hoping to reach at least the semi-finals. I must add a few words on the wheelchair event too. I saw a match in London at the 2022 World Cup and was blown away by the brutality and skill on show. Try and catch some of the matches on television if you can. It really is quite a spectacle.
