Sports New Year with Izvestia

Ski racing

Tour de Ski

At the end of last week, the Tour de Ski, a traditional multi—day ski race for the New Year holidays, started in Italy, taking place inside two World Cup stages - the fourth in Toblach and the fifth in Val di Fiemme. The first of them has already hosted a sprint and an individual race. On December 31, participants will celebrate the year 2025 with a mass start, and on January 1, they will celebrate the beginning of 2026 with a pursuit race. In the second stage of the Tour de Ski, we will have a sprint on January 3 and a mass start on January 4. Russians Daria Nepryaeva and Savely Korostelev are taking part in these events in a neutral status. On December 29, according to the results of the individual race, he became ninth, reaching the top 10 in the international arena for the first time in his career.

December 31, mass start: 13:30, men; 16:30, women. January 1, pursuit race: 12:30 p.m., men; 2:30 p.m., women Toblach-Dobbiaco Ski Resort (Toblach, Italy)

Snow rails: how Nepryaeva and Korostylev started the Tour de Ski

Russians return to the legendary multi-day race three years later

January 3, sprint: 14:15, preliminary race, women; 14:50, preliminary race, men; 16:45-17:05, quarterfinals, women; 17:10-17:30, quarterfinals, men; 17:40-17:45, semifinals, women; 17:50-17:55, semifinals, men; 18:00, final, women; 18:05, final, men. January 4, mass start: 13:30, men; 17:30, women. Val di Fiemme Ski resort (Val di Fiemme, Italy).

Live broadcasts on Okko Sport

Chess

The World Blitz Championship

The World Rapid Chess Championship, which is traditional for the end of the year, is coming to an end. At the end of last week, the winners and prize—winners in rapid became known, among whom there are Russians - Alexandra Goryachkina won the women's tournament, Vladislav Artemyev finished second among men. On December 29, the women's and men's blitz tournaments started. The first 13 rounds were played that day. Six more will be held on December 30, followed by the playoffs, which will determine the winners.

December 30: 2 p.m., rounds 14-19; 3:30 p.m., final. Qatar University (Doha, Qatar). Live broadcasts on the FIDE website

Cross-country skiing and biathlon

The Race of Champions

Over the past few years, one of the main sporting events on New Year's holidays has been the "Race of Champions" in Ryazan, where almost all the best skiers and biathletes of Russia, as well as the stars of Belarusian biathlon, gather. This time we will not see the skiers Daria Nepryaeva and Savely Korosteleva, who were allowed to the World Cup, as well as the injured three-time Olympic champion Alexander Bolshunov. But Olympic medalists Irina Kazakevich, Eduard Latypov and Alexander Loginov, biathlon world champion Anton Babikov, Olympic champions in cross-country skiing Tatiana Sorina, Yulia Stupak and Denis Spitsov, Olympic bronze medalist in cross-country skiing Alexander Terentyev, Olympic biathlon champions from Belarus Dinara and Anton Smolsky and many others will take to the track..

January 3, 12:00-13:50. January 4, 10:40-12:00. Almaz Biathlon Complex (Ryazan). Live broadcasts on Match TV and Match! The planet"

Alexandra the First: Goryachkina became the rapid world champion

Vladislav Artemyev became the second in the open tournament, passing only Magnus Carlsen ahead.

Tennis

Tournaments in Brisbane and Hong Kong

A new season in world tennis starts on January 4. Brisbane, Australia, will host the first major women's tournament in 2026, the WTA—500. In this competition, the winner will receive 500 points in his rating. Several Russians will take part in it — Ekaterina Alexandrova, Mirra Andreeva, Anna Kalinskaya, Veronika Kudermetova, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Lyudmila Samsonova and Diana Schneider. On January 5, two smaller men's tournaments, the ATP—250, will begin in Brisbane and Hong Kong. Daniil Medvedev will speak from Russia in Australia, Andrey Rublev and Karen Khachanov in China. All tournaments will end on January 11th.

January 4-11, 04:00-14:00. Queensland Tennis Centre (Brisbane, Australia). Victoria Park (Hong Kong, China). Live broadcasts on the WTA and ATP websites

Hockey

KHL Regular Season

In the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), the New Year traditionally means a very short break in the season. Clubs always end the outgoing year on December 30th. This time, on the penultimate day of 2025, the audience will face several confrontations, including the Moscow derby of CSKA – Dynamo and the St. Petersburg derby of Shanghai Dragons - SKA. In 2026, the games will begin on January 3. And over the next week, the audience will find a whole host of interesting matches. The most high-profile of them are the confrontation between CSKA Moscow and the current Gagarin Cup winner Yaroslavl Lokomotiv (January 4), the meeting of the current leaders of the Eastern and Western conferences Magnitogorsk Metallurg and Lokomotiv, as well as the confrontation between the two top clubs of the East Kazan Ak Bars and Omsk Avangard (both matches will take place January 6). Then we will see visits to Metallurg, first by Avangard (January 8), and then by St. Petersburg SKA (January 10). The holidays will end with the CSKA Moscow – Spartak Moscow derby (January 11).

December 30: 17:00, CSKA Arena (Moscow); 19:30, SKA Arena (St. Petersburg). January 4, 17:00, CSKA Arena (Moscow). January 6: 14:30, Metallurg Arena (Magnitogorsk); 17:00, Tatneft Arena (Kazan). January 8, 10, 2:30 p.m. Metallurg Arena (Magnitogorsk). January 11, 18:00, CSKA Arena (Moscow). Live broadcasts on Match TV, KHL TV, KHL Prime and Kinopoisk