Sports (1983: Doomsday)

Athletics were all but forgotten when the missiles were launched in the early hours GMT of September 26, 1983.

In the aftermath, gone were the great soccer leagues of Europe, the vaunted sports programs of the Soviet Bloc, the glamour of the National Football League in the United States, the deep-rooted tradition that baseball had in the U.S. and the northern hemisphere.

As nation-states came into existence, or continued their existence through the difficult years post-Doomsday, and their societies stabilized, athletics became an important tool for cultural morale.

In recent years, domestic competitions in numerous sports have returned in the survivor states in Europe, North America, Asia and Africa. South America's domestic leagues in soccer and other sports resumed play in the mid-1980s and today are considered the strongest and most successful leagues in the world. The ANZC competitions also resumed in the mid-80s after government officials deemed that rugby and Australian Rules football would aid public morale as the country rebuilt from the loss of three of its greatest cities.

International competition has resumed, foremost in soccer, which is finishing qualifying tournaments for the 2010 FIFA World Cup to be held in the Celtic Alliance. The Federation de Internationale Football Association (FIFA) was restarted in 1986 by South American soccer officials and is currently headquarted in Paraguay; discussions are ongoing about whether to keep it there or relocate it to its previous headquarters, Zurich in what is now the Alpine Confederation.

International governing bodies for various other sports, from swimming to rugby, cricket to basketball, athletics to baseball, are in various processes of organizing themselves, in cooperation with the League of Nations, which has actively organizing a revival of the Olympic Games. The 2010 summer games, to be held in the ANZC, will be the first since Moscow in 1980. It is also reorganizing the International Olympic Committee, which would be responsible for the summer and winter games going forward.

Professional sports is also slowly reorganizing. It primarily exists in Central and South America, the ANZC, New Britain, Singapore, the Phillippines, and in scattered nations in Europe and North America. Auto racing may make a comeback in the 2010s as well, as entrepreneurs are attempting to restart the Formula One Series.