Five sporting events to get excited for in March 2024
From the World Athletics Indoor Championships to the Boxing Olympic Qualification Tournament, March Madness and more, discover some of the biggest sporting events taking place in March, as the Olympic Games quickly approaches.
26 March marks just four months until the start of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 and things are heating up when it comes to the sporting calendar.
The final Olympic quotas are currently on the line in the world of surfing, world titles will be won in athletics and the NCAA’s much-loved March Madness is nearly upon us.
Here are five sporting events to get excited for this March, just months before the beginning of Paris 2024.
ISA World Surfing Games, 23 February-3 March
Having kicked off on 23 February, the ISA World Surfing Games are wrapping up in the first weekend of March, and the final Olympic surfing quotas will be allocated to the best surfers who have yet to secure their spots in Paris.
On the world-renowned breaks of Maraga, and El Pico and Rastrial located on the northern coast of Puerto Rico, some of the biggest names in surfing will compete, including five-time world champion Carissa Moore, reigning world champions Caroline Marks and Filipe Toledo, as well as up-and-coming stars Caity Simmers and Molly Picklum, who took the women’s titles on the first two stops of the WSL Championship Tour.
The pressure is on as the final roster comes together for Paris 2024.
As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024
Click here to see the official qualification system for each sport.
Carissa Moore of Hawaii surfs during the the Oi Rio Pro 2022 on Itauna Beach, Brazil.
World Athletics Indoor Championships, 1-3 March
With the first starting pistol fired on 1 March, this three-day competition will see the world’s top track and field stars go head-to-head at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow, Scotland.
All eyes will be on global star and fashion icon Noah Lyles who will be looking to add to his already stacked resume of six world titles and one Olympic bronze medal. Going up against Lyles, 60m sprint world record holder Christian Coleman will also be aiming for gold. The race promises to be quite the showdown.
The 60m is just one highlight of the championships that will crown indoor world champions in 26 events.
The Championships will be held at the Emirates Arena in Dalmarnock, Glasgow from 1-3 March.
Boxing 1st World Qualification Tournament, 3-11 March
On 3 March, boxing fans around the world will turn their attention to the 1st World Qualification Tournament in Busto Arsizio, Italy, where 49 Olympic quotas are up for grabs.
Although this is not the first opportunity boxers have had to secure quotas for the upcoming Olympics, 670 athletes will strap on their gloves and fight for spots at Paris 2024.
Many of the boxers will be aiming for their first Games, but the competition also includes numerous Olympic medallists, including Carlo Paalam, Nesthy Petecio, Ingrit Valencia, and Aidan Walsh.
Carlo Paalam and Galal Yafai exchange punches at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
CONCACAF W Gold Cup, 21 February-11 March
Dubbed the “region’s new flagship competition for Women’s National Teams” by U.S. Soccer, the inaugural CONCACAF W Gold Cup will see 12 teams from North, Central and South America, and the Caribbean compete to be crowned the tournament's first champions.
Having kicked off on 20 February, the tournament stretches until 11 March. The teams are split into three groups of four and compete in a single round-robin style group stage before semi-finals and the final will decide the winner. Matches are held across different states in the U.S. and the 12 nations involved include traditional powerhouses the USA, Canada and Brazil.
March Madness, 19 March-8 April
With blockbuster ratings for the Women’s March Madness tournament in 2023, the NCAA men’s and women’s tournaments were full of records, upsets and storylines, and followed by tens of millions of viewers across the globe.
Expect no less from one of the biggest highlights of the 2024 basketball season.
Selection Sunday, when the brackets are announced, falls on 17 March and the tournament itself kicks off two days later, on 19 March. The tournament will run across the United States until 8 April.
