A Reset Year

Can you believe it's been five years since COVID upended all of our lives?!  Crazy, isn't it?  Anyway, after all the COVID cancellations/postponements and the reshuffling of schedules that they caused, we're almost back to normal.  By the end of 2025, we will be there.  Which is why I'm calling this year a "reset year."  Come 2026, the sports calendar will finally be back on its pre-COVID schedule.

It's true that the Olympics and Euro got back on schedule in 2024 after the 2020 editions of those events were delayed.  However, they were on an abbreviated three-year cycle instead of the typical four.  Now they're at the beginning of a new four-year cycle.  Not five.  Not three.  Like I said, it's a reset to what the schedule is supposed to be like.  Not jammed into three years without the off year in the cycle.

In most Olympic sports, there's a World Championships every other year in the odd years.  Since the 2020 Olympics were delayed a year, so were all of the 2021 World Championships.  Then they 2023 World Championships were held as scheduled prior to the 2024 Olympics.  Which means this year is five years in a row with a major global competition.

Then there are the quadrennial events that were scheduled for 2021 that also had to be moved back a year.  This year, it's their turn to have the abbreviated three-year cycle before their four-year clock resets.  This applies mainly to European women's soccer players.  Between Women's Euro 2021-22, the 2023 Women's World Cup, last year's Olympics and now the 2025 Women's Euro, it'll be four years in a row for them.

The World Indoor Championships in track & field typically take place in even years.  The 2020 edition, scheduled to take place in Nanjing, China, was one of the first events postponed because of COVID.  They were originally rescheduled for 2021 before being postponed again.  There have been two regularly-scheduled World Indoor Championships since then.  Finally, Nanjing will host World Indoors this March, five years later than planned.  There will be another edition next year, as well, but after three straight years with World Indoors, the meet won't be held in 2027 and they'll finally be fully back on schedule.

Swimming's World Championships also get back on schedule this year after the chaos created by COVID.  This will actually be the fourth straight year with a Swimming World Championships!  For reasons I still don't quite understand, there was a World Championships last February in Doha, just eight months after the 2023 World Championships and only five months before the Paris Olympics.  This year, they head to Singapore before finally taking a World Championships break in 2026.

Perhaps the most important thing for Olympic sports, though, is that they can finally reset their budgets.  Some of the smaller international federations rely on the funds they receive from the IOC to pay their expenses, and their balance sheets were heavily impacted by having to wait an extra year.  Now they're back to being able to budget and plan over a four-year period from 2025-28.

We'll also see a new event debut this year.  For the first time, FIFA has expanded the Club World Cup to a 32-team tournament that will serve as a test event for the following year's World Cup.  There's been plenty of criticism of the expanded Club World Cup and reasonable questioning of whether it's even actually a good idea.  FIFA wants to do it regardless, though, so it's happening.  It'll be in June and July in many of the NFL stadiums that'll be used at the 2026 World Cup.

Another event makes its debut this year in preparation for the NHL's Olympic return in 2026.  Instead of an All*Star Game, the NHL will hold the Four Nations Face-Off, featuring NHL players from the United States, Canada, Finland and Sweden representing their home countries.  The tournament is set for February in Montreal and Boston, with the NHL carving out a break in its schedule, just as it will next year when NHL players will participate in the Olympics for the first time since 2014.

Also set for 2026 is the next edition of the World Baseball Classic.  COVID really screwed up the schedule with that tournament, causing a six-year wait from 2017-23 before a three-year wait ahead of the 2026 tournament (when the cycle will presumably become four years).  So, with the full tournament being played in 2026, that means we'll get qualifying during Spring Training this year.

Women's basketball was one of the hottest sports out there in 2024, and 2025 will be another big year for the sport.  The WNBA added an expansion team, the Golden State Valkyries, and extended the regular season to 44 games.  The WNBA Finals have also finally been made a best-of-seven series.  That's not all, though.  The stars of the WNBA have banded together to create a new three-on-three league, Unrivaled, that will debut in a few weeks and play during the WNBA offseason.

NFL international games are a permanent part of the schedule now.  Next season, the number of international games increases to as many as eight.  In addition to the traditional slate in London, Berlin and Madrid will host NFL games for the first time.  The MLB season will start in Tokyo with two games between the Dodgers and Cubs, and there's a game between the Braves and Reds set for Bristol Motor Speedway in August.

Meanwhile, hockey isn't the only sport gearing up for the 2026 Olympics.  It's only 13 months until the Opening Ceremony in Milan, and Olympic qualification in winter sports has already gotten underway in earnest.  The 2024-25 winter sports season ends early in the year, and some spots should be awarded at the various World Championships.  Then, come November-December, it'll really heat up, and we should know most, if not all of the U.S. team headed to Italy before the calendar flips to 2026.

Those are just some of the highlights.  There's plenty to look forward to on the 2025 sports calendar.  Some of these events are annual.  Some are getting back on their normal cycle after having their schedule knocked out of whack by COVID.  Which is why 2025 will be a year to reset.