SEOUL -- The sporting calendar for 2026 promises to be a crowded one for South Korea, with four major international competitions all scheduled to take place in the same year.
From 1994 to 2018, the Winter Olympics, the FIFA World Cup and the Asian Games were all held in the same year. That pattern was interrupted in 2022, however, when the Asian Games, set to be hosted by the Chinese city of Hangzhou, were pushed back by a year due to lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This trio of events will once again be held in the same year, with the 25th edition of the Winter Olympics leading things off in Italy.
The Milan-Cortina Winter Games will run from Feb. 6 to 22 across Italy, where South Korea will eye a return to a top-10 finish in the medal race.
South Korea is once again expected to snap up multiple medals in short track speed skating, while athletes in snowboard, freestyle skiing, bobsleigh and skeleton have also come on strong of late. Four years ago in Beijing, South Korea won two gold, five silver and two bronze medals to rank 14th.
Nestled between the Winter Games and the World Cup in the summer will be the sixth iteration of the World Baseball Classic (WBC), scheduled for March 5-17.
The 20 participating nations have been divided into four groups for the preliminary round, and South Korea will play out of Pool C against the defending champion Japan, Australia, Chinese Taipei and the Czech Republic. All Pool C games will be played at Tokyo Dome, and the top two countries from each group will advance to the knockout stage.
South Korea has been eliminated in the preliminary phase at each of the past three WBCs, after finishing third in 2006 and second in 2009.
The biggest-ever FIFA World Cup with 48 nations in action -- up from 32 -- will run from June 11 to July 19 across the United States, Canada and Mexico. South Korea will play in Group A against Mexico, South Africa and a European playoff winner to be determined in March.
The top two teams from each of the 12 groups will qualify for the knockout stage, joined by the eight best third-place countries.
South Korea will play all three Group A matches in Mexico -- at 11 a.m. on June 12 against the European qualifier, at 10 a.m. on June 19 against Mexico and at 10 a.m. on June 25 against South Africa.
The 20th edition of the Asian Games will run from Sept. 19 to Oct. 4 across the Japanese prefecture of Aichi, with the prefecture capital, Nagoya, serving as the main host.
Athletes from across Asia will compete for 460 gold medals in 42 sports and 61 disciplines.
South Korea has finished in third place at each of the past two Asian Games, behind the two continental sporting giants of China and Japan.
China will likely run away with the most gold medals once again, while Japan will try to bank on its home-field advantage and hold off South Korea again.
In Hangzhou in 2023, South Korea grabbed 42 gold medals -- its lowest total since 1982.
