The Second Half of 2020: This is What the Sports Calendar Looks Like

Already in winter there are three highlights: the Men's Handball European Championships in Austria, Sweden and Norway (9 to 26 January), the Biathlon World Championships in Antholz (12 to 23 February) and the annual Super Bowl.

From mid-June Europe was supposed to be back in football fever. That's when UEFA EURO 2020 should have start. UEFA postponed the tournament, which will be held in twelve cities across Europe, until the summer of 2021 due to the corona crisis. 

Similarly, the Boston and London Marathons will not take place in the first half of 2020. Both were postponed by the organisers to September and October respectively.

However, the biggest sports highlight in 2020 was to be the Olympic Summer Games in Tokyo from 24 July to 9 August. In a total of 339 competitions, athletes from all over the world would then have competed for medals and five sports would have celebrated their Olympic premiere:

• Climbing
• Skateboarding
• Karate
• Surfing
• Baseball/Softball

However, on March 24, the IOC pulled the rip cord and announced that the Olympics would be postponed to 2021, as well as the Paralympics.

Thus other events in the second half of the year move into the spotlight: With the Tour de France, the Vuelta a Espana and the Giro d'Italia, the three largest bicycle tours take place within the shortest time. With the US Open and the French Open, there will be two more Grand Slams in tennis. And: With the London Marathon, at least one major marathon event can still take place.

ISPO.com gives an overview of the sports highlights of the year 2020.

The rescheduling of major events such as the Olympic Games and the Men's European Football Championship into the coming year means that there would be a concentration of events in the summer of 2021 - and this has already had consequences into 2022.

For example, the Women's European Championship in football will be postponed by UEFA until the summer of 2022. "By moving UEFA Women’s EURO to the following year, we are ensuring that our flagship women’s competition will be the only major football tournament of the summer, providing it with the spotlight it deserves", UEFA explains the decision.