With this article, we celebrate women in sports. Women sports events, teams and players are earning more opportunities by the day, gaining greater funds, and have achieved an overall increase in popularity. Leading women players like Serena Williams, PV Sindhu, Mary Kom, Sania Mirza, Martina Hingis, and many others have been key sports figures who have carved the path for other women to lead. Not only are they the inspiration behind many others but are also encouraging women to be more proactive in watching sports events. Leading number of people are eager to watch women-based world cups in cricket, football, hockey, and other games along with supporting their favourite athlete in track and athlete events.
This new year, a series of exciting events in women’s sports are upon us to look forward to. If you are keen to watch some of the most action-packed sporting events this year featuring all women sports figures and athletes, here is the list you must save for 2023.
Women’s T-20 World cup
Organized by the cricket governing body – the International Cricket Council – ICC, this sporting event had its first edition in England in 2009.
This year, the event is to be hosted by South Africa, the women’s T-20 world cup is set for early this year between 10th Feb to 26th Feb 2023 and will have a total of 10 teams who will contest for the world cup title. The defending champions will be Australia who are known to be a strong and dominant team.
Countries like England, New Zealand, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, and West Indies earned their spots in the world cup due to their overall position in the world rankings while South Africa qualified for the tournament as hosts. Ireland and Bangladesh got their sports booked via a qualifying tournament last September.
Which women’s cricket team are you supporting for this T-20 women’s world cup?
Women’s Six Nation
What started in 1995-96 as home nations with four teams – England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales has now expanded into Women’s Six Nations – an international rugby union competition contested between six teams from Europe.
Scheduled to be held across England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France, and Italy (the six nations) – this mega sporting event will be a month-long spectacle from 25th March till 29 April 2023. These six nations will be competing and contesting for the title.
This rugby event is indeed a crowd favourite. Speculations are to be believed, England will be seeking their fifth consecutive title and France is thought to be their toughest competition. Oh, and it’s all women’s Ruby championship!
Also read: Argentina – FIFA World Cup Winners
Women’s Ashes
This one gets its name from the Ashes – and is a perpetual trophy event for Test cricket between England and Australia. The series was first played in 1934 as the first ever test series for women’s cricket and became officially known as the Ashes in 1998.
This summer season, the UK will be proudly hosting the Ashes across the country from 22nd June till 18th July. The stadiums will have the Lord’s, The Kia Oval in London, Edgbaston in Birmingham, The Ageas Bowl in Southampton, Nottingham’s Trent Bridge, the Seat Unique Stadium in Bristol, and the Cooper Associates County Ground in Taunton.
This event is a definite crowd pleaser and favourite for all English and Australian sports fans who will see the two women’s teams compete across cricket’s three different formats – test, one day and T-20. With Australia being the current winners – we are eager to see who this time will be. Do note that England last won in 2014.
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FIFA Women’s World Cup
This undoubtedly is one of the most eagerly awaited women sporting events of the year.
This sporting event is organized by Federation Internationale de Football Association – FIFA for women’s national football teams and is to be held in Australia and New Zealand this year (2023) between July 20th till August 20th.
2023 FIFA women’s world cup will see 32 teams competing (24 last year) – a first ever in the women’s football game history. Countries like Morocco, Philippines, Ireland, Vietnam, Zambia will be seen making their world cup debuts while Germany, United States and European champions – England, are amongst a few favourites speculated to be in the lead to win the title for 2023.
The opening match will be between New Zealand and Norway to be held at Eden Park Auckland on the 20th of July 2023. Who are you supporting?
Also interesting to read: 5 most iconic FIFA world cup moments
Tour de Frances Femmes
This is an annual women’s only cycle stage race around the scenic country of France. The event is organized by Amaury Sport Organization which also runs the Tour de France – this is also part of the UCI Women’s World Tour.
Tour de Frances Femmes is to be held between July 23rd till 30th and starts from Clermont-Ferrand to finish at Pau. While the list of competing females is still awaited from the event’s organizers, nothing short of the best in women’s cycling should be expected.
Annemiek van Vleuten was last year’s winner in the first ever women’s only race that was officially held under the Tour de France organizers. The race this year is expected to have eight stages like last year however with bigger climbs and a time trial inclusion to make it more eventful and competitive.
Netball World cup
Previously known as the World Netball Championships – the Netball world cup 2023 is due from 28th July to 6th August 2023. It is a quadrennial international netball world championship organized by World Netball – that was inaugurated in 1963. From the inception the competition has been dominated by Australia and New Zealand national netball teams.
The Netball world cup 2023 will be held in South Africa and both New Zealand and Australia are the popular choices for people amongst the countries who are more likely to win the 2023 title. If Australia wins this title in 2023 – this will be their 12th title win, an astonishing number!
Other participating countries will be Jamaica, England, South Africa, Uganda – all countries that qualified via hosting rights/ world rankings. There will be 16 more teams competing to fill in 10 remaining places/spots in the world cup – these will be filled through regional tournaments.
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F1 Academy
Beginning this very year, Formula 1 is all set to launch an all-female driver category – the F1 Academy. It will have the aim to develop, support and prepare young female drivers to move ahead and progress to higher stages of competition. These can include W series, Formula 1, Formula 2 and Formula 3.
While there is still more information awaited on when this begins and where, what we do know is that the series will consist of five teams run by the present F2 and F3 teams – each will enter three cars to make up a 15-car grid. With a total of 21 races and 15 days of official testing scheduled for.
With these many events and more, there is surely something for everyone. If you are keen on attending one of these events, make sure to save the dates and get your tickets.
Which tournament/ sporting event are you most excited about?
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