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This should help avoid the worst case of final rejections. Because recent postponements are no longer an option for these two biggest sporting events of the year. But also the restrictions or exclusions of the spectators would result in serious economic losses. After the mandatory break of several months, many sports associations are pushing even more events into their already tight calendar, while others have already postponed their main competitions to 2022 or 2023.
At the Olympic Games, the high number of participants is the main concern, as a total of 11,238 athletes from 207 countries competed in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. The main problem of the European Football Championship, on the other hand, is that it should take place in twelve cities, from Baku to Rome and Dublin.
For next year, the organizers have started the bitter fight against time. The number of new coronavirus infections skyrocketed again in the fall and winter months, and many return concepts for spectators in stadiums are back in the drawers after a corresponding ban by politics.
For Thiem, the year begins in Australia
For Austrian Athlete of the Year 2020 Dominic Thiem, the tennis season begins as usual on the fifth continent, where the first Grand Slam tournament will also take place in Melbourne from February 8-21, 2021. Last year, the Serbian Novak Djokovic was only defeated in the final in five sets at the Australian Open.
Other highlights are the French Open in Paris (May 23 to June 6), the return to Wimbledon (June 28 to July 11) and the US Open in New York (August 30 to September 12 ), where Thiem is known to compete as the defending champion. The Olympics are also a topic for the world’s number three this time around.
The handball World Cup opens the new year
The first major non-annual event in 2021 is the 27th World Handball Championship from January 14 to 31 in Egypt. There, Austria take on outsiders the United States (January 14), two-time Olympic champion France (most recently 2012, on January 16) and world runner-up Norway (January 18) in Group E in Giza. To make the target jump to the main round (as of January 21), the Austrian Handball Federation (ÖHB) team must be at least third in the group.
Then, depending on the season, the focus is on the world championships for lovers of winter sports: the 46th Alpine Skiing World Championships from 9 to 21 February in Cortina d’Ampezzo, the 52nd Championship of the Biathlon World from February 10 to 21 in Pokljuka and the 53rd World Championship. Nordic Ski World Championships from February 23 to March 7 in Oberstdorf. However, the World Cup for Freestyle Skiing and Snowboarders in Zhangjiakou, near Beijing, had to be canceled due to Covid-19 regulations in China.
Formula 1 starts in March
The Formula 1 season will traditionally start in Melbourne on March 21 and will include the record number of 23 World Championship races until the final on December 5 in Abu Dhabi. The Austrian Grand Prix will take place in Spielberg on July 4. The world’s best motorcycle riders will complete their World Championship races on August 15 at the Red Bull Ring in Styria.
Series champions Red Bull Salzburg and Wolfsberger AC, who will host Tottenham in the first leg of the 16th final on 18 February, hibernate in the soccer European Cup. The “policemen” play at home against Villarreal on the same day. WAC will play their return leg in London on February 24 and Salzburg will be in Spain a day later. The Europa League winner will be crowned in the final on May 26 in Gdansk (Danzig) before the Champions League final takes place three days later at Istanbul’s Ataturk Olympic Stadium.
European Football Championship in June, if nothing gets in the way
The president of the European Football Association (UEFA), Aleksander Ceferin, wants to stick to the EM plan with twelve stadiums spread across Europe so far. The umbrella organization quickly denied corresponding rumors that the tournament, like the 2018 World Cup, could only take place in Russia. Instead, UEFA deals with four different spectator scenarios, ranging from full capacity to ‘ghost games’. In view of the last few months, it is relatively certain that a European Football Championship will be able to be played in the summer of 2021.
For the Austrian national soccer team, things will get serious for the first time at the European Championship on June 13 (6:00 pm CEST) in Bucharest: in the opening match of Group C, David Alaba and company will face off to strangers from North Macedonia. Four days later (June 17, 9 pm), the game in Amsterdam for the Dutch title contenders is on the program. The last opponent in the fight for the round of 16, which will reach the top two and the best four thirds of the group, will be Ukraine on June 21 (6:00 pm) in Bucharest.
Olympics as a highlight
Twelve days after the final of the European Championships on July 11 in London, the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo is on the agenda. Japan’s capital is hosting the world’s largest sporting event for the second time since 1964. Austria expects more success than the last in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, where there was only one bronze medal in sailing. The 16 Summer Paralympic Games are scheduled from August 24 to September 5 in Tokyo.
An even more difficult task: because the Olympic Games not only have 24 football teams, but about 11,000 athletes from all over the world. The great hope of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is a coronavirus vaccine that could be widely available next summer.
The IOC will make “great efforts” to ensure that as many participants and fans as possible are vaccinated against the corona virus before the trip to Japan next year, said IOC chief Thomas Bach. “We do this out of respect for the Japanese people. You have to be sure that every effort is made to host safe games in Tokyo, ”Bach said.
