2026 Sporting Events: 15 Must-Watch Dates

Olympic Games in Italy for the winter. A men’s football World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico for the summer. But not only that: the year 2026 promises to be busy on a sporting level. Overview of the fifteen main events of the coming months.

Soccer. African Cup of Nations, until January 18

Morocco is in the spotlight. Four years before co-organizing the World Cup with Spain and Portugal, the host country of the African Cup of Nations (CAN) has a double ambition with this competition: to prove its capacity to host major sporting events and to offer its public its first coronation in the CAN since 1976. The continental tournament, which kicked off on December 21, is at the stage of the round of 16, which will start on Saturday December 3.

Handball. Men’s European Championship, from January 15 to 1^is FEBRUARY

After a fall from Olympus in 2024 – elimination in the quarter-finals – then a third place at the 2025 World Cup, the Blues will approach this tournament with ambition. Reigning champions, they will try to retain their continental crown during this tournament organized jointly in Denmark, Sweden and Norway.

Omnisports. Winter Olympics, February 6-22

After the 2022 edition organized in China, the Winter Games will take place in Italy, for the third time in history, before joining the French Alps in 2030. On the program: nearly 2,900 international athletes for 116 events organized in eight sports and sixteen disciplines. The opening ceremony will take place on Friday February 6, at four sites simultaneously, including San Siro, the football stadium of the two Milan clubs. The Paralympic Games will be held from March 6 to 15.

Table tennis. World Team Championships, April 28 to May 10

Led by the Lebrun brothers and Simon Gauzy – all three in the world top 20 individually – the “ping” Blues will try to confirm their new status during the World Team Championships in London. Bronze medalists in Paris in 2024, finalists at the last Worlds in Busan (South Korea) and recently crowned European champions in Zadar (Croatia), they are among the main outsiders, ready to seize their chance if the Chinese ogre, still the ultra favorite, were to stumble.

Tennis. Roland-Garros, from May 24 to June 7

The French Open and its legendary clay court remain a timeless classic. After a 2025 vintage marked by the surprising and impressive journey of Loïs Boisson – semi-finalist when she was only 361^e world at the dawn of the tournament – ​​and an anthology final between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, the organizers are dreaming of an equally tasty 125th edition.

Soccer. World Cup, June 11 to July 19

Heading to America for the premier football competition, the 2026 edition of which is jointly organized by the United States, Mexico and Canada. For the first time, 48 nations will compete in the World Cup, compared to 32 previously. For his last campaign as coach of the France team, Didier Deschamps will be keen to erase the painful memory of the 2022 final, lost to Argentina, by giving the tricolor jersey a third star.

Cycling. Tour de France men, from July 4 to 26

A departure from Barcelona to return, three weeks later, to the Champs-Elysées, with in the meantime two consecutive arrivals at the summit of Alpe-d’Huez and, as in 2025, the triple ascent of the Butte Montmartre to spice up the last stage. And in the end, it’s often Tadej Pogacar who wins. Unless his great rival Jonas Vingegaard succeeds in the feat that he is the only one to have accomplished, in 2022 and 2023: beating the Slovenian champion in a Tour de France.

Swimming. European Championships, from July 31 to August 16

What better way to relive the thrill of Paris 2024 than a competition on the emblematic sites of the Games, the Saint-Denis Aquatic Center and the “bras de Grenelle”? More than 1,100 athletes in total, representing 50 national federations from the Old Continent, will compete for medals in the five disciplines on the program. Among them, Léon Marchand should compete in his first competition in France since his four Olympic titles at the 2024 Olympic Games. The French capital had not hosted the competition since 1931. A sign that the meeting is highly anticipated, more than 100,000 spectators are expected during the fortnight.

Cycling. Tour de France women, from 1^is to August 9

For its fifth edition since its return to the calendar in 2022, the women’s Tour de France will start from Lausanne, Switzerland. The peloton will then cross three regions of France, before tackling Mont Ventoux for the first time. Winner in 2025, Frenchwoman Pauline Ferrand-Prévot has already announced that she will make the defense of her title the main objective of her 2026 season.

Athletics. European Championships, August 10 to 16

Paris 2024 Olympic champions Armand Duplantis, Femke Bol, Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Keely Hodgkinson will meet the best European athletes in Birmingham (United Kingdom) to boost their records. Led by 10,000m world champion Jimmy Gressier, and Olympic 100m hurdles vice-champion Cyréna Samba-Mayela, the French delegation will have the opportunity to show off, two years before the Los Angeles Games.

Basketball. Women’s World Cup, September 4 to 13

The presence of the Blues during the competition which will take place in Berlin is not yet assured, but if the Tricolores managed to qualify, there is no doubt that they would dream of dethroning “Team USA”, two years after their defeat by one point in the final of the Paris Olympic Games against the Americans. The French team will above all try to win a second medal at a World Cup, the first – in bronze – dating back to the inaugural edition of the tournament, contested in 1953.

Volleyball. Men’s Euro, September 9 to 26

Double reigning Olympic champion, the French volleyball team remains on the bitter failure of its elimination in the group stage of the 2025 World Cup. It will be keen to redeem itself during the European Championships, which will take place in Italy, Bulgaria, Finland and Romania. A competition that the Blues have not won since 2015.

Judo. World Championships, October 4 to 10

The annual meeting of the best judokas on the planet will take place on the shores of the Caspian Sea, in Baku (Azerbaijan). The opportunity for Teddy Riner, whose return to competition is planned for 2026, to aim for a twelfth world champion title. For the rest of the French team, we will have to do better than the four small medals of 2025, including only one gold – that of Joan-Benjamin Gaba in the under 73 kg category –, far from the excellent results of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Veil. Departure from the Route du rhum, on the 1st^is November

Like every year of the Men’s Football World Cup and Winter Olympics, 2026 will also see the return of the Rum Route, a solo transatlantic crossing linking Saint-Malo (Ille-et-Vilaine) to Pointe-à-Pitre (Guadeloupe). One hundred and 17 sailors competing in six categories will set off on November 1st off Pointe du Grouin and head south. During the last edition, the Frenchman Charles Caudrelier completed the transatlantic in less than seven days, a record.

Handball. Women’s Euro, from December 3 to 20

The year will end as it began: with a European handball championship, but this one for women. The competition will take place in five countries, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Turkey. Defeated in the final of the Olympic Games in 2024, the Blues will aim for a second continental coronation, after that of 2018. They will have a lot to do, particularly against Norway, ten times European champions and gold medalists in Paris.