The Algarve Golden Race
Pigeon racing is the second most popular sport in Portugal, right after football. All over
the country, between villages and towns, or in the middle of pine forests, appear small to
medium-sized wooden houses, either on their own or as little “villages”. These are lofts
for carrier pigeons. They are top athletes, are cared for, trained for several hours a day
and fed with specific food. At speeds of almost 90 km/h, the fit birds compete in national
and traditional races over distances of up to 900 km.
At the same time, in Monte Gordo near the Spanish border, the international “elite” meet
at the Algarve Golden Race with prize money of 1.1 million Euros, where pigeons from
all over the world face off against each other.
The history of carrier pigeons is very old. The ancient Egyptians were already using them
to announce the return of their ships back to their home harbor. In ancient Greece, pi-
geons delivered the results at the Olympic Games and in Persia, pigeon racing was a
popular sport around 1500 BC.
For a long time, pigeons were also used as messengers for military purposes. The Ger-
man army owned over half a million of these birds, while the British and French armies
used mobile pigeon stations. The Swiss army used carrier pigeons to deliver messages
over a period of 80 years.