A new year provides the new prospect of outstanding sporting moments as we look forward to 2024.
Athletes across the globe celebrated 1 January 2024 as the beginning of the Olympic year, a spectacle that only graces the world of sport every four years. However, for students, professional athletes and the general public alike, a new year provides a new opportunity for sporting excellence in every capacity, whether that is watching sporting events, trying a new sport, being more active, or grasping a gold medal, breaking a world record or representing your University or country in your sport. Here is some of what 2024 offers (without even scratching the surface!).
BUCS Nationals 23-25 February 2024
BUCS Nationals is returning to the city of Sheffield for 2024 for its annual multisport event as the best student-athletes from all corners of the UK compete across six different sports. With UofG currently in sixth place on the BUCS medal table after semester one with 6 gold, 1 silver and 3 bronze medals, there’ll be the hope of more success when the respective teams make the journey down South.
Glasgow Taxis Cup 20 March 2024
Hundreds of students across Glasgow will represent their respective universities in Scotland’s biggest intervarsity sports tournament as it returns to the city in March 2024. Students from UofG, Strathclyde and Glasgow Caledonian will compete in over 16 sports at multiple venues throughout Glasgow, with UofG looking to retain the Glasgow Taxis Cup for yet another year.
Euro 2024 14 June-14 July 2024
Germany is set to host a major men’s football tournament for the first time since the 2006 World Cup. With no clear winner six months out, it’ll be all to play for in regards to who will be crowned champions at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium on 14 July. Scotland, having qualified for a second successive Euros, face the hosts in the opening game while many would name England as a serious contender for the cup.
Olympic Games 26 July-11 August
It’s set to be a busy summer in Europe as the Olympics return to the continent 12 years after London 2012. Paris 2024 should be something spectacular given the plan for the opening ceremony is for competing athletes to travel along the Seine in a huge flotilla. In terms of the sports themselves, four new ones will be making a debut, including breakdancing and surfing. Team GB will be hoping for some glory with big names such as Adam Peaty, Keely Hodgkinson and Katarina Johnson-Thompson all in training for arguably the world’s most famous multisport event.
Paralympics 28 August-8 September
After a two-week break, it’ll be time for the Paralympics to be in the spotlight in Paris. As was the case in Tokyo three years earlier, there will be 22 sports at the Paris Paralympics, with 4,400 athletes set to participate across 11 days of competition. Once again Team GB will be looking to better the haul of 124 medals that were taken home from Japan, 41 of which were gold.
