2021 was a year with a few sporting highlights and greatly overshadowed a very bleak 2020 from a sports point of view. Nonetheless, the early months of 2021 were a barren, sport-less wasteland and things look a lot better for this year.
The African Cup of Nations is already well underway and has given us some very memorable moments so far. For all the controversy surrounding Novak Djokovic you would almost forget that the Australian Open is happening at all and with Djokovic deported we’ll have a different men’s champion for the first time since 2018.
January is a packed month of sport with all of these events including the postponed winter Olympics in Russia which looks to be one of the most exciting Olympics yet. February will give us plenty of hard-hitting sports with the Super Bowl and the Six Nations where Andy Farrell will hope to build on another good victory against New Zealand which capped off 2021.
Heading into the summer we have the PGA Masters to look forward to, as well as the Champions league final which will take place in Russia.
There is plenty of sports to look forward to in the summer with the NBA Finals, Tour De France and Wimbledon kicking us off. The summer closes with the commonwealth games and the US Open towards the end of August.
From an Irish perspective it will be an odd year for the All-Ireland, with both the hurling and football All-Ireland finals taking place in early July. This cutting down of intercounty sports has not been so warmly received and it will be very unusual given how late it has been concluded in recent years, but all we can hope is that 2023 will get the competition back to its normal schedule.
The year will come to a close with the Women’s Rugby World cup, Ryder cup and The FIFA World Cup all taking place after October. Overall, there is plenty to look forward to this year and looks to be a year not as effected by Covid as the previous two and hopefully it won’t be long until we get back to a completely normal sporting calendar that is not forced to jam in postponed competitions.
