2020 is not just a brand-new year, it’s also a brand-new decade. And if you care for a little bit of astrology, Year of the Rat—which 2020 is—are also the beginning of a brand-new 12-year cycle (the Pig is the last sign of the Chinese zodiac). Which makes 2020 not just a leap year, but a spanking new New Year.
Sports-wise, 2020 has a lot of things in store. And it probably will be a significant year for famous athletes who are Rats. Like LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Shaquille O’Neill, Jaylen Brown of the Boston Celtics, D’Angelo Russell of the Golden State Warriors, Myles Turner of the Indiana Pacers, and Devin Booker of the Phoenix Suns who are turning 48, 36 or 24 this year.
It’s an Olympic Year. And this year’s Summer Olympics which will be held in Tokyo will feature five new sports: baseball/softball, karate, skateboarding, rock climbing and surfing. Every Olympic year new sports are added to both the Summer and Winter Olympics. These year’s additions—in particular, skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing—can be classified as extreme sports and reflect the spirit and taste of the young generation.
Karate will feature both Kumite and Kata disciplines in three weight categories. Skateboarding will showcase Park and Street Disciplines where the former will compete on ramps, half pipes, bowls and quarter pipes. Street involves skating on a course that resemble urban features: handrails, benches, stair sets and boxes. In Park, skaters will be judged on speed, height of jumps and grabs. In Street, points will be awarded based on the difficulty of the maneuvers performed. In Rock Climbing the competition will be in three formats: bouldering, lead climbing and speed climbing. The surfing competition will be done on a real beach (Shidshita) and surfers’ maneuvers will be evaluated based on variety, difficulty level and speed, power and flow.
The Philippines will also be the site of athletic competition in 2020. The 2020 Asean Para Games—the companion games of the recently held Southeast Asian Games for para-athletes will be held in March in the same venues where the SEA Games competitions were staged. The 11 Asean nations—Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Vietnam and the Philippines—will participate in 16 sports: archery, athletics, badminton, boccia, bowling, chess, cycling, 7-a-side Cerebral Palsy football, goalball, judo, powerlifting, sitting volleyball and swimming, with obstacle racing as a demonstration sport. There are plans to add triathlon, wheelchair tennis and shooting.
2020 is also Ryder Cup Year. The 43rd Ryder Cup will be held in September in Whistling Straits, Haven Wisconsin with Team Europe captained by Pádraig Harrington and Team USA captained by Steve Stricker. First Vice Captains are Robert Karlsson for Europe and Jim Furyk for the US. The Ryder Cup first took place in 1927 in Worcester, Massachussetts, originally as a competition between Great Britain and the United States. English businessman Samuel Ryder donated the trophy and thus earned the players’ esteem enough for the biennial meet to be named after him. Eventually, the British side was expanded to include other European golfers, including the Spanish Seve Ballesteros and Antonio Garrido in the 70s. Thus far, the European team holds the edge over their US counterparts 11 championships to eight, with one tie.
What else will the year 2020 bring? Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan and Chris Bosh may find themselves being the newest inductees into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. The quartet have 13 NBA titles, four regular Season MVP awards, five NBA Finals MVP awards and 59 All-Star Game appearances between them. Shawn Marion, Buck Williams, Mark Eaton and Michael Finley have also been nominated. “Old standards” Tim Hardaway, Rip Hamilton, Chris Webber and Ben Wallace have been nominated before but need more votes to get in. The final picks will be announced in April at the NCAA Final Four championship in Atlanta.
Here’s wishing all of you happiness and prosperity in the Year of the Golden Rat!