Montréal’s sports teams and major sporting events score big in 2026
Sports Festivals and events
Montrealers are legendarily passionate sports fans, and love for the city’s sports teams and major competitive events — the Canadiens, Montréal Victoire, Alouettes, CF Montréal, Montréal Roses, the F1 Grand Prix du Canada and more — is DNA-deep in the identity of the city’s inhabitants. Montréal ranks among the world’s top cities for high-level athletics, holding approximately 60 major competitive events in an average year. Let the following be your guide to Montréal’s top-tier sports teams and many of the exhilarating sports events scheduled for 2026.
A monumental year for MTL sports in 2026
Montréal is set to become the epicentre of world cycling, hosting the prestigious 2026 UCI Road World Championships from September 20-27. Over the course of eight days, the competition — a free event that’s open to the public — is expected to draw close to 500,000 cycling enthusiasts for 13 time trials and road races. This will only be the second time that the event has taken place in Montréal, and only the third time it’s been staged in Canada.
The 2026 UCI Road World Championships will, without doubt, be the most significant sporting event held in Montréal since the 1976 Summer Olympic Games and, interestingly, will coincide with the 50th anniversary of the 1976 Olympics. The city is planning a number of activities celebrating the memory and legacy of this milestone event, the announcements for which will be rolled out throughout the year.
Major sporting events to have on your radar
The WWE throws it down in town
Whether you call it pro sports or pro theatre, we can all agree to call it crazy fun when professional wrestling rolls into Montréal (a city with a long and loving relationship with rasslin’). The WWE Friday Night Smackdown and Saturday Night’s Main Event thunder back into the Bell Centre on January 23 and 24, respectively.
MTL goes headfirst into diving
Montréal has a rich diving history, having hosted 14 World Aquatics Diving World Cup and Grand Prix events, as well as the 2022 World Junior Diving Championships. The historic Olympic Pool will once again be the competition venue when the World Aquatics Diving World Cup commences its 2026 season, February 26 to March 1.
Skate it like you mean it
The 2026 ISU World Short Track Speed Skating Championships will feature elite-level skaters competing in a series of thrilling, explosive, nail-biting races. Montréal is a historic hotbed for the sport and has been home to many of its Olympic stars. The championships will gather the best female and male short track speed skaters from around the world, March 13-15.
This one’s a slam dunk
Montréal’s downtown Dawson College, situated across the street from the Montréal Canadiens’ former home in the storied Forum arena, will play host to a different kind of net-scoring sport when it hosts the high-level Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Women’s Basketball National Championship, March 18-21.
B-ballers are in for a treat again in 2026 when the Toronto Tempo play two official, regular-season WNBA games at the Bell Centre in this increasingly basketball-obsessed city. Dates and opponents will be announced when the WNBA releases its 2026 schedule.
The pinnacle of disc spinning
Ultimate Canada, the nation’s preeminent authority on ultimate frisbee (or discs, as they call them), has announced, to the delight of fans, that the Canadian 4-on-4 Ultimate Championships will take place in Montréal this year. The action will be fast and furious at the capacious Complexe Sportif Marie-Victorin on April 11 and 12.
Grapple with this
The 2026 Canadian Wrestling Championships — senior, junior and cadet categories — will grip fans when it hits the mat in Montréal, May 28-30. Venue to be announced.
Tri-ing for the win
The 2026 World Triathlon Para Series Montréal will see its return to the city on June 27 and 28. The World Triathlon Para Series Montréal is one of 13 international para triathlons, and welcomes the world’s best para-triathletes to Parc Jean-Drapeau for sprint distance competitions that test the limits of endurance. The Montréal leg of last year’s 2025 World Triathlon Para Series saw stacked international fields cross all 12 para categories.
Pooling the best
The 2026 Bell Canadian Swimming Trials is a championship meet featuring five-days of heats and finals at the 50-metre Montréal Olympic Pool, July 5-9.
Here’s something to cheer about
This will be epic. The Association for International All Star (AIA) cheer and dance will bring their AIA Global Tournament to Montréal’s Verdun Auditorium, July 15-20. The competition, which sees thousands of participants, has invited teams from more than 15 countries and 85 qualifying events, encompassing all levels and genres within the international cheer and dance community.
Life’s a beach
Planet Earth’s top beach volleyball athletes will touch down in Montréal to spike several days of high-intensity action at the 2026 Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour – Elite 16 in August (dates to be confirmed). Parc Jean-Drapeau will become the epicentre of the sport, hosting explosive matches with the world’s best competitors, high-energy DJ sets, delicious food options and lively entertainment.
Must-see annual marquee sports events
Get your heart racing
The Formula 1 Grand Prix du Canada roars back into Montréal’s Parc Jean-Drapeau at an earlier date, from May 22-24, kicking off the summer and increasing F1’s sustainability efforts by coupling it with the Miami race and, overall, geographically streamlining the race schedule. The Grand Prix du Canada brings with it a high-octane programme of activities and events both on and off the track. Tens of thousands of elite racing fans converge on the city for the 70-lap competition covering the 4,361-metre length of the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, named in honour of the iconic Québec race driver and winner of Montréal’s first Grand Prix in 1978.
Fans can also watch the F1 Academy race (featuring the world’s top women drivers) as well as tour the support paddocks and enjoy a number of thematic zones. A new slate of activities and activities adjacent to the race itself include daily concerts by A-list music names such as Bryan Adams, Simple Plan and Alessia Cara.
Satisfy your need for speed
Steeped in history, and powered by pure speed, the annual Valleyfield Regatta will celebrate its 86th edition (!) this year with 10 days of thrill-filled hydroplane racing, July 3-12. Competing at speeds of up to 225 km/hr, this major international event draws upwards of 130,000 spectators each year to the picturesque city of Salaberry-de-Valleyfield (the regatta takes place in Baie St-François, adjacent to the city’s downtown), located immediately southwest of the island of Montréal.
Game of boats
Who doesn’t love dragons? (Or, for that matter, boats?) Following the unqualified success of last year’s event, the Montréal International Dragon Boat Challenge is back in 2026, in an expanded form, returning to the Olympic Basin at Parc Jean-Drapeau, July 18-20. The world-renowned Olympic Basin, which hosted rowing and canoeing competitions during the 1976 Summer Olympic Games, offers a 2,000-metre race course with six lanes located just 15 minutes from the city’s downtown.
Men’s tennis aces to hold court
The very best in men’s tennis return to lay down the law at the prestigious National Bank Open presented by Rogers tournament, one of the most-anticipated events on the city’s professional sports calendar. Occurring simultaneously in Montréal and Toronto, with the best men’s and women’s players in the world playing at the same time, it’s one of the most anticipated events on the city’s professional sports calendar (attendance in the past has topped 200,000). This year, the men’s tournament comes to IGA Stadium from August 1 to 13.
Get in on the action
Named for the mythical part jackrabbit/part antelope creature of lore, JACKALOPE — Canada’s largest action sports festival — is an adrenaline junkie’s dream. A wide variety of world-class competitions and demonstrations (skateboarding, bouldering, fixed gear racing, BASE jumping and more), exhilarating activities, food trucks and live music will thrill audiences and participants alike at the Jacques-Cartier Pier in the Old Port, September 11-13.
Cycling’s best take the Mount Royal test
Once a year, for over five muscle-burning, perspiration-pouring hours, elite cyclists from around the world — competitors in the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia, Summer Olympics and the like — bring peak athletic performance to, fittingly, the peaks of Mount Royal for the annual Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal, taking place this year on September 13. It features the best of the best of pro cyclists in a 150-rider peloton on a challenging circuit, and is one of only two Union cycliste internationale (UCI) world tour events in North America.
On your marks!
The annual Marathon Beneva de Montréal, October 9-11, is for both elite and recreational runners who are simply chasing the endorphins of participation. Each year, the marathon attracts thousands upon thousands of competitors for its 42.2 km, 21.1 km, 10 km, 5 km and 1 km races. The start of the Marathon and Half-Marathon races is in Parc Jean-Drapeau, and the finish line for all running events is in Parc Maisonneuve.
Montrealers' love for the city’s sports teams and major competitive events is DNA-deep in the identity of the city’s inhabitants.
Montréal’s premier pro sports teams kick it in the ’26
CF Montréal
Soccer: Alive and kicking in MTL
When it comes to soccer in Montréal, big change has been afoot with the sport’s rapid ascendance in the city. Montréal’s professional Major League Soccer (MLS) franchise, CF Montréal, has captured the hearts and minds of locals, and games are a boisterous affair. The club plays its home games in the super-fan-friendly Stade Saputo in the Olympic Park, built on the former track and field practice site of the 1976 Summer Olympic Games. The soccer stadium’s west side has a close-up view of the Olympic Stadium’s architecturally majestic tower, the tallest inclined tower in the world.
Women’s soccer is in full bloom in la belle ville with the 2024 founding and ever-increasing popularity of the Montréal Roses. Representing the city in the Northern Super League, the club embodies creativity, passion and Montréal’s diversity through its name, logo and colours. The Roses play their home matches at Centre Sportif Bois-de-Boulogne, a top-of-the-line venue that embodies the essence of the team and which is Canada’s first stadium designed specifically to meet the needs of a professional women’s soccer team.
Montréal Canadiens
Hockey: The puck drops here
Montréal is hockey, and when the city’s professional, NHL hockey team the Montréal Canadiens (known as the “Habs” to the team’s faithful) are playing at home, there is a palpable energy that can be felt throughout the city when the 24-time Stanley Cup champions take to the ice. With an average age of 25 years old, the Habs are currently the youngest team in the NHL, making for some exhilarating, lightning-fast games this 2025-’26 season. And if hockey is a religion in Montréal, then the Bell Centre is its temple, boasting the most electric atmosphere in the NHL.
The Montréal Victoire is one of the founding teams of the fledgling Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL), which showcases the best women’s ice hockey players in the world. Victoire home games at Place Bell in Laval (easily accessible by metro from downtown Montréal) are action-packed, highly enthusiastic, family friendly affairs that see thousands and thousands of hockey fans not being shy about their love for the team. And making the PWHL even more exciting this year, the league has expanded to eight teams with the addition of two western franchises, a welcome addition to the Victoire’s schedule.
Montreal Alouettes
Football: The gridiron on the mountain
Montrealers love their pigskin. Anticipation always runs high for the season start of our Canadian Football League (CFL) Montréal Alouettes (or “Als,” as they are affectionately known), who in 2025 came within a hair of capturing the league’s coveted Grey Cup playoffs trophy. (Bring on 2026!) Home field Percival-Molson Stadium, a diamond set on the southern slope of Mount Royal overlooking downtown Montréal, provides for a dramatic setting complete with scenic views of the city.
Montréal Alliance
Basketball: Hoop dreams come true
The Montréal Alliance is the ninth franchise to be added to the Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL), Canada’s first true coast-to-coast national professional basketball league. The team’s name, Alliance, was chosen to reflect Montréal’s vibrant and dynamic mosaic of municipalities and communities that together are an alliance that make Montréal one of the world’s great metropolitan cities.
Jamie O'Meara
Jamie O'Meara was the Editor-in-Chief at C2 Montréal and the former Editor-in-Chief of alt-weekly newspaper HOUR Magazine.