I haven’t included a predominantly sports-oriented blogentry in Pragmatism Refreshed sinceFebruary. And that was simply my briefreaction to the loss of the Patriots in the SuperBowl.
So now I break the sports drought with a few words about theupcoming Summer Olympics.
Last week the Olympic flame arrived in the United Kingdom,for an 8,000 mile relay that begins at Land’s End.
Land’s End, by the way, is what it sounds like. It is thebit of southwest England where the Channel meets the Atlantic at a point.
I remember reading a book about the Spanish Armada with theclever chapter title, “From Finisterre to Land’s End.”
Why is that clever? Well, because “finisterre” rathertransparently means “land’s end,” and because the pertinent Finisterre in thiscase is the headline of Galicia in northwest Spain. So the chapter in questiondescribed the pre-battle portion of the Armada’s travels, before they arrivedclose enough for Drake to challenge them.
Anyway, the torch began its relay in Land’s End, in thehands of Ben Ainslie, and before it reaches the stadium in London that willhost the Games, it will have passed through 8,000 pairs of hands over a periodof ten weeks.
Why Ben Ainslie? Hehas been a standout athlete for the UK in each of the last four summer games insailing events, wnning silver in 1996 and gold in 2000. In those first twogames he sailed in what is known as the Laser class. Then he moved up to theFinn class (larger craft) and won gold both in 2004 and 2008.
For those who are curious, Laser looks like this.
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