Full Speed Ahead
Sports in 2021
Time to take a deep breath and get out those fan jerseys, team banners and body paint, because 2020 is finally over and 2021 has arrived, bringing a whole host of sporting events, documentaries and specials along with it. After all of t he postponements last year, let ’s look ahead while we prepare ourselves for one of the year’s biggest single days in the world of professional sports: the Super Bowl.
The biggest story this year is the Summer Olympics, a.k.a .“Tokyo 2020” (because “Tokyo-wehad-to-postpone-to-2021” doesn’t quite roll off the tongue ). The Olympic Games are scheduled to take place between July 23 and Aug. 8 in Japan, and some exciting new events have been added to the competition, including 3- on -3 basketball, freestyle BMX and Madison cycling—a mixed event named after Madison Square Garden wherein cyclists slingshot each other forward using a technique that would surely be immediately banned by any parent for being far too dangerous.
The FIFA 2 0 2 0 World Cup will also be held this year — in Qatar between Feb .1 and 11— causing a domino effect that will mean the World Cup takes place one year late for the for see able future. In comparison, the 2021 Masters Tournament is set to tee off in Augusta, Ga., in early April, just five months after Dustin Johnson won the 2020 tournament in November. Likewise, the 147th Kentucky Derby will run on May 1, back to its regular schedule after the all-around strange win for Authentic in September 2020.
Despite not being the world’s most well-known sporting event, the first major sports competition to follow 2020 will actually be the 2 021 World Men’s Handball Championship, hosted in Egypt beginning on Jan .14. The International Amateur Hand ball Association only holds its championship every second year, so it got to skip right over 2 0 2 0 ( lucky!). The event has been taking place every three to four years since 1954 (and biennially since 1993), though the inaugural championship was hosted in Nazi Germany in 1938, and the countries who were both allowed and willing to compete were very few. One reason we don’t hear much about handball on this side of the pond might be because a non-European country had never won a medal until 2 01 5 , when Qatar took silver.
All in all, it ’s fair to say that both fans and athletes are eager to kick this year off with a bang — there’s a lot of last year to make up for, after all. Best wishes to all for the new year, and stick around to stay caught up on all the exciting sporting events yet to come in 2021.