Sport countdowns: 11 dates with a rule behind them
Fixtures and championships whose date is set by a written rule, plus the Games and tournaments that already have a formally scheduled edition. The next one is Boxing Day football on Saturday, 26 December 2026, 94 days from today.
What is coming up in sport?
| Event | Next date | Weekday | Days away |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boxing Day football | 26 December 2026 | Saturday | 94 |
| The Masters | 8 April 2027 | Thursday | 197 |
| Boston Marathon | 19 April 2027 | Monday | 208 |
| Kentucky Derby | 1 May 2027 | Saturday | 220 |
| Preakness Stakes | 15 May 2027 | Saturday | 234 |
| Indianapolis 500 | 30 May 2027 | Sunday | 249 |
| Belmont Stakes | 5 June 2027 | Saturday | 255 |
| Wimbledon | 28 June 2027 | Monday | 278 |
| Summer Olympics | 14 July 2028 | Friday | 660 |
How are these sport dates worked out?
8 of the 11 entries here come from a written rule, which means a date can be produced for any year by evaluating it. The other 3 are carried only for the years that have been formally scheduled, and return nothing for every other year. No fixture between two named teams is listed, and no tournament whose date is announced season by season. That rules out the Ryder Cup, the Six Nations, the Tour de France and the Grand National, all of which move.
The rule behind every sport date
| Event | Rule |
|---|---|
| Wimbledon | The Championships begin on the Monday falling between 27 June and 3 July, and run for fourteen days to the men’s singles final on the second Sunday. |
| The Masters | Four rounds from Thursday to Sunday in the first full week of April, so the final round always lands on the second Sunday of the month. |
| Kentucky Derby | Run on the first Saturday in May, which confines it to the 1st through the 7th of the month. |
| Preakness Stakes | Run two weeks after the Kentucky Derby, which places it on the third Saturday in May. |
| Belmont Stakes | Run three weeks after the Preakness Stakes and five weeks after the Kentucky Derby, so it falls on a Saturday in early June. |
| Indianapolis 500 | Run on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, which is the day before the last Monday in May. |
| Boston Marathon | Run on Patriots’ Day, the third Monday in April, which has been the holiday’s date in Massachusetts since 1969. |
| Boxing Day football | Always 26 December. The date is fixed even though the fixture list published against it is not. |
| Summer Olympics | Scheduled edition only: 2028. |
| Winter Olympics | Scheduled edition only: 2026. |
| FIFA World Cup | Scheduled edition only: 2026. |
When in the year do these sport dates fall?
Counting this year and next, the 11 entries here fall across 5 of the twelve months: February (1), April (2), May (3), June (3), December (1). May is the busiest, carrying 3 of them. Sport is the category where the rule and the fixture come apart most obviously. The Kentucky Derby is the first Saturday in May whoever runs in it, and the Preakness and the Belmont are pinned to the Derby rather than to a date of their own, which is why all three can be produced for any year from one calculation. The Olympic Games and the World Cup are the opposite: no rule generates them, and the only defensible thing to carry is the edition a governing body has actually scheduled. Both kinds are here, labelled for which is which.
What is each of these sport events?
- Wimbledon
- Played on grass at the All England Club in south west London, the only one of the four tennis majors still on that surface.
- The Masters
- The first men’s golf major of the year and the only one played on the same course every time, Augusta National in Georgia.
- Kentucky Derby
- A mile and a quarter on dirt at Churchill Downs in Louisville, and the first leg of the American Triple Crown.
- Preakness Stakes
- The middle leg of the American Triple Crown, run at Pimlico in Baltimore over a shorter distance than the Derby.
- Belmont Stakes
- The final leg of the American Triple Crown and the longest of the three races. The venue has moved while the date rule has held.
- Indianapolis 500
- Two hundred laps of the two and a half mile oval at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, five hundred miles in total.
- Boston Marathon
- A point to point course from Hopkinton to Boylston Street in Boston, and the oldest annual marathon still run.
- Boxing Day football
- A full programme of English league matches on 26 December is a fixture of the calendar rather than of any one season. This page counts to the date, not to a named match.
- Summer Olympics
- The Games of the XXXIV Olympiad are formally scheduled for Los Angeles from 14 to 30 July 2028. No later edition is carried here, because no later edition has a date this catalogue can state.
- Winter Olympics
- The XXV Olympic Winter Games were held at Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo from 6 to 22 February 2026. The 2030 edition is not carried here, because its dates are not something this catalogue can state.
- FIFA World Cup
- The 2026 tournament ran from 11 June to 19 July across the United States, Canada and Mexico. The 2030 edition is not carried here, because only its host countries are settled.
Why does a rule matter more than a date?
A countdown is only worth publishing if the number on it is right, and a number is only right if the date under it is. A date copied from somewhere is correct until the year it is not, and nothing on the page will say when that happened. A rule fails differently: if the rule is wrong, every year is wrong at once and it shows up immediately. That is why this catalogue prefers a rule it can evaluate over a date it has to trust, and why events that only ever have an announced date are left out even when they are far more searched than the ones that made it in.
2 entries in this category have no scheduled edition ahead: Winter Olympics, FIFA World Cup. Those pages count backwards from the most recent one instead of guessing at the next.
Every sport countdown
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