After what has been the hottest UK summer on record, the welcome sight of dropping temperatures and autumnal rain showers also ushers in a new season of sport.
The winter sport season officially arrives at the end of October, with international competition returning in style.
In the year following an Olympics, anything can happen, with champions sometimes taking a well-deserved step back and giving new names the opportunity to emerge.
With the 2026/27 season promising the inaugural Winter X Games League, new Olympic sports and plenty more, here are all the key dates you need to look out for.
October 2026
The Figure Skating Grand Prix kicks off the cold season in Angers, France on 23 October. Team GB favourites Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson may not be on the ice this time round but will be looking to continue their history-making run of results this year.
Fellow Olympic ice dance pair Phebe Bekker and James Hernandez have announced that they will take a season out of the sport due to injury.
While the curling season has already begun domestically, the first major competition will take place in October as the European Championships take to Ostrava, Czechia.
With a new-look Team Hardie set to shine for Scotland, they are ready to make a statement in their first major international as an outfit, while Team Henderson take to the ice for the women.
Elsewhere, the Short Track World Tour and Alpine Skiing World Cup both get underway.
November and December 2026
A slew of World Cups make up November and December as athletes continue to start their season.
Freestyle skiers and snowboarders head out to Innsbruck to start earning points in the snowsport season, while biathletes also open their 2026/27 campaigns.
The sliders head to Altenberg for the first skeleton and bobsleigh World Cups, as Winterberg hosts luge and the speed skating season kicks off in Beijing.
Figure skating, short track and alpine skiing all continue, with the latter taking control over the Christmas and New Year period, with five World Cups from 20-29 December.
January 2027
January officially welcomes the first of the world championships for the 2026/27 season.
The Mixed Doubles Curling World Championships will take place in Lohja, Finland from 4-10 January, with Beijing 2022 Olympic champion Vicky Dummond returning to major competition alongside teammate Euan Kyle.
The month will also see a flurry of European championships as the speed skating and short track Europeans take place in the Netherlands and Germany respectively.
The end of the month will see four-time European medallists Fear and Gibson go for their maiden ice dance gold, as the skeleton and bobsleigh Europeans are sure to see GB prosper.
Embarking on its first season as an Olympic sport, freeride, which sees ski and snowboard athletes compete on off-piste and unformed terrain, will likely make it's return to the calendar in January.
February 2027
World championships and even more world championships is the theme of February.
The month kicks off with two weeks of alpine skiing action in Crans Montana before the Biathlon World Championships hit Estonia on the 10th.
But it is ice and sliding that take precedent this month with the world championships in luge, skeleton, bobsleigh and speed skating all taking place.
Matt Weston is the reigning champion from 2025, with the 2026 season instead seeing him soar to the Olympic title and, despite spending the latter part of last season recovering from injury, he will want to return to top form.
The luge European championships also take part this month with athletes returning to the site of the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Games a year on to vie for continental glory.
March 2027
Another bumper month of world championships will see the freestyle skiing and snowboarding worlds take control throughout the majority of the month.
The competition will run from 6-21 March in Montafon, Austria with the Britain's first-ever Olympic champions on snow, Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale set to return.
Both the men's and women's curling worlds will take place the same month, with teams still set to be revealed.
One of the most ruthless and glamourous events on the calendar, the figure skating world championships return in Tampere, Finland in March while the brand new discipline of Synchro9 also takes to the global stage.
Sheffield will host the sport, which sees teams of nine skaters compete in synchronisation on the ice in a high-energy knock-out format of the figure skating, from 27-28 March.
Ski mountaineering returns as its worlds take place in Azerbaijan from 11-18 March.
April and May 2027
The winter season will filter out in April and May 2027, with World Cups coming to an end.
The inaugural X Games League, which sees Team GB athletes Mia Brookes, Zoe Atkin and Kirsty Muir all competing for Team New York, will make its third and final stop.
The new and inventive X Games format will see its first team crowned on 11 April.
While May will bring the season to a close with the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships Division I in Estonia.
Sportsbeta 2026