Major Sporting Events In 2026: Complete Guide To Winter Olympics, World Cups And Global Tournaments

The year 2026 promises to be a mouth-watering year for sports fans. The calendar is packed with major sporting events, including the Olympics, World Cups, the Commonwealth Games, and the Asian Games.

With so much action lined up, the drama and excitement will unfold steadily as the days, weeks, and months of 2026 roll by.

Here is a look at some of the major sporting events that will happen this year:

1. Winter Olympics 2026

Like the main Olympics (Summer), there is the lesser-known Olympics (Winter). It does not mean they are any less important though. To excel in winter sports like skiing, short track speed skating etc., one needs to be at their peak athletic prowess, just like they are in the Summer Games.

The 2026 Winter Olympics will be its 25th edition and will be joint-hosted by Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo in Italy. It will be held from Feb. 6 to 22. There will be Indian interest too as star Alpine skier Arif Khan is set to make his second consecutive Olympics after Beijing 2022.

2. ICC Men's T20 World Cup

In cricket, the ICC Men's T20 World Cup will be the sport's biggest event of the year. The World Cup will be co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka. The tournament gets underway on Feb. 7 with the final scheduled to be held on March 8.

India will not only co-host the tournament but also be the defending champions having lifted the coveted trophy in 2024. All the usual nations are participating but keep an eye out for Italy. The European nation were superb during the qualifiers and will be making their Men's T20 World Cup debut in this tournament.

3. FIFA Men's World Cup

FIFA is gearing up to host the biggest football tournament yet again. This time it could be the biggest-ever tournament hosted. The 2026 edition will see the USA, Canada and Mexico co-host the men's Football World Cup.

It will see 48 teams competing for the greatest prize in the sport. For the first time since 1998, the tournament has been expanded to accommodate 48 teams. The FIFA World Cup will run from June 11 to July 19 and there will be a staggering 104 matches played during this period.

4. Commonwealth Games

The 2026 edition of the Commonwealth Games were initially to be hosted by Australia's Victoria. But when the state withdrew from hosting the Games owing to mounting costs and overshooting budget, Glasgow stepped in and offered to hold the Games.

This edition will be a curtailed one as Glasgow had little time to prepare itself for the multi-sport event. There will be only 10 sports taking place across four venues at the Glasgow edition. The CWG will run from July 23 to Aug. 2.

Although, this will be a shortened version of the Games, there will be no dearth of sporting action as around 3,000 athletes from 74 Commonwealth Associations are expected to participate in these Games.

5. Asian Games

While the Commonwealth Games have got affected, it has in no way dulled the spirit for the Asian Games. The 2026 edition will be held in Aichi Prefecture and Nagoya City in Japan from Sept. 19 to Oct. 4. This will be the 20th edition of the tournament. It will see 45 Asian countries competing in 460 medal events in 42 sports.

The Asian Games will be of special interest to the Indians as T20 cricket is one of the many medal sports as part of these Games.

Along with these multi-sports, multi-nation events, regular tournaments in tennis, cricket, F1 World Championship, athletic events and much-more are lined up for the sports fans.