I admire how the NFL has built the Super Bowl into a destination sports event. In the United States, Super Bowl Sunday is a major secular holiday. And in France, where I live, it's catching on: it's aired live and fans host late-night (due to time zone differences) Super Bowl parties.

This year, the Super Bowl overshadowed another sporting event: the Vendée Globe. What's the Vendée Globe? It's a boat race. A round-the-world boat race. Without stops or assistance. And it's a solo race.

Competing skippers sail in sixty foot boats. They circle the world in about 24,840 miles. The start and end point is at the Sables d'Olonne, a seaside town on the Atlantic Coast, in the Vendée region. The sailing route goes south down the Atlantic, around the Cape of Good Hope, then on a southern route that circles Antarctica; the sailors then round Cape Horn and sail across the Atlantic to finish.

The race exerts a heavy toll on skippers and their boats. These sometimes end in skippers abandonning the race, or even in dramatic rescues from the high seas.

Both men and women compete in the Vendée Globe, and the skippers come from several countries (including the UK and the USA), although the French contingent is by far the largest.

Thanks to the Internet and modern communications, it's possible to follow the racers, and to hear and see the skippers. The organizers have even added a virtual race game for enthusiasts.

I enjoy the race because both skill and chance are in play.

Last Sunday, French skipper Michel Desjouyeux won the race, sailing around the world in 84 days, 3 hours, and 9 minutes. For someone who had just sailed around the world, solo and nonstop, in arduous conditions, I thought he looked great!