As the gloom of June gives way to the gloom of July, August and September, it’s worth taking a moment to consult the schedule. Because an unusually epic summer for global sports is well underway.
This is an amazing thing. From Real Madrid’s Champions League final win at Wembley this month to the Women’s Cricket T20 World Cup in October, we’re in the midst of non-stop sport.
The centerpiece is a classic midsummer European one-two. First up is Euro 2024 in Germany, which starts on Friday and ends on July 14 in Berlin, also known as Gareth’s Glorious Last Stand, or also known as Gareth’s Fury And the tearful jumping out of the window depends on the bounce of the ball. Secondly, the Paris Olympics, which take place from July to August, and the Paralympics two weeks later, are a chance to prove themselves as the greatest sports show of all, eight years after the last plague-free Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Prior to this, the ongoing Men’s T20 World Cup was being held in the Caribbean and the United States, but mainly in the Caribbean, and the contestants were members of the British press corps with grungy faces, safari suits, and intruders.
Surrounding this we have the usual summer banquets of the Tour de France, Vuelta a España, Wimbledon, Open Golf etc., as well as the background music of the comings and goings of the Premier League and mid-summer transfer nonsense.
The view from here is very beautiful. Sports have been a grueling place over the past few years. The World Cup in Qatar is complex and challenging. Covering the last COVID-19 hell of the Tokyo Olympics was like being imprisoned in a very small chain hotel room by a sinister sports-based surveillance state, conducting a real-time experiment on the effects of constant cheap takeaway food while watching people Throw the hammer into the ghost.
This year is a different story, with the three-month event filled with colour, drama, escapism and maybe even embodying the wider values of these global sports brands coming together. Of course, The Guardian will report it all on these pages.
Just point to an event and we’ll be presented with it in all available formats, from pictures, numbers and colors, to a live submission from some breadcrumb-covered gantry 23 seconds before midnight by a red-faced, desperate hacker Report.
Back in London, our desk team will deliver exquisite minute-by-minute, ball-by-ball, medal-by-medal commentary beneath the familiar foil trays of energy drink cans and tofu jalfrezi.
Maybe you’re even a fan of the award-winning Football Weekly, which features Max Rushden and Barry Glendening, and that’s fine, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that and no one can prove otherwise. Good news: Football Weekly will also be broadcast daily during Euro 2024.
All of this will again be provided free of charge upon delivery. Yes, now is the time to point out the truth; it is all possible because of your support.
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Enjoy a sporty summer. Please keep coming back to follow it. We can guarantee great writing and reporting from David Hytner, Ali Martin, Jonathan Liew, Sid Lowe, Suzanne Wrack, Jonathan Wilson, Sean Ingle, Tumaini Carayol, Jacob Steinberg, Donald McRae and all your other favorites. If you think what we do is good, please help us provide you with more of the same.
