Coming up this week: Festive chaos returns to North London’s Ally Pally as Britain’s Luke Littler defends his PDC World Darts crown; American Lindsey Vonn lays down an early Olympic marker as the women’s Alpine World Cup season opens in St Moritz; and the sprawling, often dramatic SEA Games unfold in Thailand, where elite sport mixes with regional flavour.
Here’s your Inside Track to the action:
DARTS
Elvis, traffic cones and a teenage king as Ally Pally readies for darts mayhem
As Christmas traditions go, dressing up as Elvis, a nun or even a traffic cone has become as ingrained as turkey and trimmings for regulars to the PDC World Darts Championship, which began this week and runs deep into the festive period. From December 11 to January 3, London’s historic Alexandra Palace is transformed into a cacophonous celebration of “arrows,” as fans from across the UK and around the world arrive kitted out in a mind-boggling array of fancy dress to cheer on their favourites and generally have a beer-fuelled good time watching the ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTIES — the sport’s three-dart maximum score.
After shrinking following its 1970s and ‘80s heyday, the championship has in recent years grown into one of sport’s most reliably anarchic spectacles. At the centre of it all stands Luke “The Nuke” Littler, who scarcely seems to have aged since bursting into the sport’s consciousness as a 16-year-old finalist two years ago. He lost that first final to fellow Englishman Luke Humphries, returned last year to beat Dutch player Michael van Gerwen, and did so as the youngest world champion the game has ever known. Now 18, Littler comes back as world number one and as the odds-on favourite to retain his crown.
His 2025 season has been relentless. Five more major titles have taken him to nine overall, placing him fourth on the all-time list — still miles behind Phil Taylor’s scarcely believable 79, but already in rarefied air for a player not yet out of his teens. Week after week, Littler has made the extraordinary feel routine, blending heavy scoring with a composure that belies both his age and the din that surrounds him.
The stakes are higher too. Victory this time would earn him a 1 million pound ($1.3 million) payday, double last year’s cheque, from a 5 million pound prize pool — a fitting reward for the sport’s newest standard-bearer.
The stage around him is bigger as well. A record 128 players are entered, 32 more than last year, including a record five from the women’s series. More matches, more noise, more fancy dress — and, should Littler go all the way again, he can join his boisterous fans for a legal celebratory beer this year.
PDC World Darts Championship, London, December 11-January 3
ALPINE SKIING
Vonn to lay early Olympic marker as women’s World Cup opens in St Moritz
Lindsey Vonn’s Olympic mission moves from ambition to hard evidence this weekend, as the Alpine Ski World Cup season opens for women in St Moritz — the same Swiss resort where her improbable comeback began a year ago.
Now 41, the American great is on the final push towards Milano Cortina, and there was an early reminder on Wednesday of why she remains the centre of attention wherever she races. Vonn was fastest in training for Friday’s downhill, clocking 1:30.95 down the Corviglia piste, ahead of Norway’s reigning Olympic champion Kajsa Vickhoff Lie, with Italy’s Sofia Goggia — herself an Olympic downhill gold medallist — sharing third with France’s Laura Gauche.
Seasoned observers know training times can flatter to deceive. They are, above all, an exercise in reading the hill, gauging conditions and fine-tuning equipment. Skiers often ease off before the line. But context matters, and so does location. St Moritz has always been good to Vonn — a five-time winner there, most recently a decade ago — and it was here last year that she returned to World Cup racing for the first time in nearly six years, posting a respectable 14th place in a super-G following partial knee-replacement surgery.
This weekend’s programme — two downhills on Friday and Saturday, followed by a super-G on Sunday — marks the start of a crucial six-week stretch. Every race doubles as preparation and Olympic audition. Vonn, the 2010 Olympic downhill champion and four-time overall World Cup winner with 82 career victories, has been open about her goal. If she qualifies for Milano Cortina, she could become the oldest woman ever to medal in Olympic Alpine skiing.
“I’ve done it before,” she said recently. “If there’s anything I know how to do, it’s skiing.”
FIS Ski World Cup, St Moritz, Switzerland – December 12-14
SEA GAMES
Thailand hosts sprawling SEA Games as sport and politics collide
In a calendar crammed with multi-sport events, nearly 10,000 of Southeast Asia’s finest athletes have gathered in Bangkok and Chonburi, Thailand, for the biennial SEA Games — a sprawling, high-energy festival that brings together 11 nations to contest a whopping 50 sports. Part Olympics, part regional showcase, the Games occupy a unique space in the sporting landscape, blending elite competition with local flavour and, at times, unapologetic eccentricity.
Alongside familiar Olympic staples such as archery, fencing and swimming, the SEA Games burst with indigenous and fringe sports that reflect the region’s culture and sporting passions. Floorball (think ice hockey, without as much contact) sits alongside dragon boat racing, while teqball — a hybrid of football and volleyball played on a curved, table-tennis-like surface — offers a reminder that innovation is encouraged here. Hosts Thailand will also expect to cash in on home advantage in muaythai, the national kick-boxing discipline that remains one of the Games’ marquee attractions.
The build-up, however, has been anything but smooth. Songkhla, one of the originally designated co-hosting provinces, was forced to abandon its events after severe flooding caused by Cyclone Senyar. Cambodia, meanwhile, withdrew its athletes amid renewed border tensions with Thailand — a reminder that sport and politics in the region are rarely far apart.
Such complications are hardly new. The SEA Games has long carried a reputation for drama beyond the field of play, with previous editions marked by diplomatic spats, judging controversies and eligibility disputes. The 2023 Games in Cambodia provided a particularly vivid example, when Indonesia’s 5–2 victory over Thailand in the men’s football final descended into chaos, with two mass brawls breaking out between the teams’ benches and four players sent off in scenes that went viral well beyond the region.
South East Asian Games, Bangkok and Chonburi, Thailand – December 9-20
EXTRA TIME
What else we’re watching
American Football: The Buffalo Bills, a pre-season Super Bowl favourite, visit rival New England Patriots for a pivotal NFL Week 15 matchup on Sunday needing a win to keep alive their hopes of winning the AFC East division title for a sixth consecutive season. The Patriots, one of the NFL’s surprises this season who beat Buffalo in Week 5, are looking to push closer toward earning the American Football Conference’s No. 1 seed and first-round bye in the playoffs. Buffalo enter the game fresh off a thrilling come-from-behind 39-34 win over the Cincinnati Bengals while the Patriots are well rested and coming off a bye week.
Golf: The PGA and LPGA Tours combine this week at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida, for the three-day Grant Thornton Invitational, a 16-team mixed event featuring scramble, foursomes and modified fourball formats and a $4 million equal purse. The 32-player field includes former world number ones Jason Day and Lydia Ko, elite women’s players Nelly Korda and Charley Hull, Scottish Open champion Chris Gotterup, and defending champions Patty Tavatanakit and Jake Knapp.
Badminton: The year closes in Hangzhou on December 17–21 with the $3 million World Tour Finals, but the real prize may be history. South Korea’s An Se-young arrives having swept up 10 singles titles in a staggering season, one short of Kento Momota’s all-time record — and with the chance to turn a dominant year into a defining one.
Cricket: Following another eight-wicket loss in the second Ashes test, England took a two-day mini-break in Australia’s idyllic Sunshine Coast to decompress before heading to Adelaide for the third match of the five-test series starting December 17. Pundits questioned whether England could afford to put their feet up given they already trail Australia 2-0.
Meanwhile, the IPL carousel spins again on December 16 in Abu Dhabi, where 350 players will go under the hammer at the 2026 mini-auction, wallets at the ready. Australian all-rounder Cameron Green is tipped to spark a bidding war, with proven match-winners Devon Conway, David Miller and Quinton de Kock ensuring there will be no shortage of drama — or inflated paddles — in the room.
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Editing by Yasmeen Serhan and Toby Chopra