Following the Equator

Top 20 International Sports Events

This is prime sports time around the world.

The French Open recently wrapped up, and Wimbledon crowns its champs this weekend. The famed Palio di Siena was held today, and Pamplona's legendary Running of the Bulls is Monday. The Tour de France starts Saturday, and the British Open begins July 17. Plus, the Beijing Summer Olympics will be held next month with the Opening Ceremony slated for 8:08:08 p.m. CST on 8/8/08.

This spectacular sports schedule got me thinking about the top international sports events, so I decided to take a swing at compiling a Top 20 list. I didn't include any competitions regularly held in the United States (no Super Bowl, no World Series) even if they draw international attention (no Kentucky Derby, no Indianapolis 500).

EF's Olympic spirit

The Olympic torch reached the summit of Mount Everest yesterday, but that was only a supplementary torch. The official Olympic torch was in the hands of EF Education First Founder Bertil Hult.

The 67-year-old patriarch of the EF family carried the Olympic torch 200 meters yesterday through Guangzhou, China. He was one of several torchbearers who covered 40 kilometers on the torch relay yesterday.

More than a million spectators —including a couple of hundred EF teachers and 350 EF employees from South China—cheered Hult and the other runners as they paraded the torch through Guangzhou.

Life of Guangzhou, the leading English news source in the city, wrote about Hult yesterday in a feature titled, "Swede Lessons in Life: Never Give Up."

"I love sports and I love the Olympics," Hult said just a few hours before he ran with the torch.

Friday Fun Fact: Public restrooms

If you gotta go, Beijing may be the place to be. According to the official Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, China, has the most public toilets of any city in the world.

Xinhua reported recently that there are 5,174 public toilets in Beijing, which is preparing for the Summer Olympic Games in August. That's more public toilets than New York, London or Tokyo.

Photo: stan, Flickr

Friday Fun Fact: Olympic torch

The Olympic torch was lit in ancient Olympia this week amid protests, beginning an around-the-world relay that will culminate at the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics on August 8. The torch route covers more than 85,000 miles across 20 countries.

Keeping the torch lit at all times can be a challenge, especially in bad weather and on airplanes. Backup flames and cans of pressurized liquid fuel are always carried alongside the official torch, in case it goes out. And on airline flights, where open flames obviously are forbidden, the flame is usually stored inside an enclosed lamp.

Travel Tidbits: Long walk aborted

I decided to check in on Mark Boyle, whom we wrote about last month. Boyle—who also goes by the name Saoirse—was trying to walk from his hometown in Bristol, England, to Gandhi's birthplace in Porbandar, India, without money. Yes, without money.

Well, he didn't make it.

Apparently, relying on the kindness and generosity of strangers only gets you so far. Apparently, it only gets you as far as Calais, France.

Boyle pulled the plug on his "pilgrimage" after only 300 miles on his expected 9,000-mile journey. Not surprisingly, he cited lack of food, lack of housing and lack of the French language as huge obstacles. It didn't help that the French assumed Boyle to be a freeloading backpacker. You can read all of the excruciating details on Boyle's blog here, here and here.

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