After making a list of Basque restaurants in the United States, I was curious to learn more about Basque institutions. It got me wondering, where are the existing Basque pelota courts? I’ve heard of many that are no longer in use or have been torn down, but I wanted to find out where the remaining ones are. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a complete list online, so this is an attempt at making my own.
Some interesting news has been happening in the world of handball this past week.
A Basque handball player, Bixintxo Bilbao, was banned last week from playing internationally for one year. Why? Because he held up the Basque flag on the winner’s podium at the 2018 World Championships of Basque Pelota in Barcelona.
Bilbao and partner Peio Larralde won gold in the pairs category. During the presentation of the medals, Bilbao held up the Basque flag, despite representing France during the competition.
According to some who witnessed the medal ceremony, the ikurrina (Basque flag) brought many cheers from the crowd. But clearly some powerful people at the International Basque Pelota Federation (FIPV), who organized the competition, were less than enthused.
The US Open is going on in the world of tennis right now, and I wanted to take a minute to highlight one of the most successful Basque athletes of our time, tennis pro Garbiñe Muguruza.
She formerly ranked #1 in the world by the Women’s Tennis Association, but Muguruza was unfortunately just knocked out of the competition last week by Czech qualifier Karolina Muchova.
Despite this setback, Muguruza is still a Basque athlete to root for, with six singles titles and five doubles titles earned in her relatively short career. The 24-year-old has only been playing professionally since 2012.
Two of Muguruza’s titles were at Grand Slam tournaments, seeing her winning the 2016 French Open and Wimbledon in 2017. In recognition of her accomplishments, the International Tennis Federation named Muguruza World Champion last year.
Last month we got to witness the excitement of the Tour de France passing through the Basque Country for the first time in 12 years.
Luckily for us, that’s not the end of Basque sporting excitement this summer.
La Vuelta a España is just around the corner! It starts in Málaga on August 25th and finishes in Madrid on September 16th.
Started in 1935 after the successes of the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia, La Vuelta is another multi-stage cycling race that runs throughout Spain and sometimes its neighboring countries.
The race takes place in 21 day-long segments over 23 days, just like the other Grand Tours of cycling.
While the world is still focused on the FIFA World Cup wrapping up this week, allow me to bring your attention to a different sporting event going on right now, the Tour de France.
What is the Tour de France?
The Tour de France is a 21-stage cycling race spread over 23 days, one of the three Grand Tours of cycling, along with Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España.
It is the largest annual sporting event on the planet, not just the largest cycling race. It attracts the most live spectators of any sporting event in the world. That’s right, more than the FIFA World Cup and even the Olympic Games!
The magic of this event is that it is accessible to the public for free along the side of the roads traveled throughout the route.
So you could just be living in some small town that has nothing going on 364 days of the year, but for one day the biggest sporting event in the world comes right to your front door!
First organized in 1903 to increase sales of L’Auto, a French sports newspaper, the 2018 Tour de France is the 105th edition of the annual cycling race. (The event stopped for a few years because of the two World Wars.)
This year’s edition started just last Saturday, July 7th and is set to finish on Sunday, July 29th.
22 teams are competing with a total of 176 riders. That’s 8 riders per team, for the first time this year after the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) changed the rules from 9 maximum riders per team to 8 in an attempt to make the event safer.
While crashes may be exciting for spectators, they’re not so fun for the riders!
The route for the Tour de France changes every year, although some things stay the same:
– most of the race occurs within mainland France, although sections through neighboring countries are common
– several stages pass through the Alps and the Pyrenees
– the grand finish takes place on the Champs Elysées in Paris
This year’s edition covers 3,351km, or around 2,082 miles.
That’s roughly the distance between the Euzko Etxea in Brooklyn, New York to the Alkartasuna Basque Club in Rock Springs, Wyoming.
I know we have some fit Basques in the diaspora here… Any takers?
