2009 National Geographic World Championship
Teams of winning geography students from around the world participated in the 2009 National Geographic World Championship, July 11-16 in Mexico City, Mexico. Each team consisted of three young students who finished in the finals of their region's own annual geography competition. The biennial event, organized by the National Geographic Society, was sponsored by Telmex Foundation with supporting sponsorship by the Mexican Academy of Sciences, CONACYT, JW Marriott Mexico City and the Televisa Foundation.
After arriving in Mexico City, teams competed in a two-part preliminary competition which consisted of a written test and a mapping exercise in which they attempted to assemble and correctly position the Earth's landmasses on a base map containing only major gridlines. The three teams with the highest total scores—Canada, Poland, and the United States—then advanced to the final competition held at Mexico City's Museum of Anthropology and moderated by Alex Trebek, host of the U.S. television quiz show Jeopardy! All three teams showed their geographic skill answering challenging questions regarding physical and cultural geography, interpreting statistics, and examining maps. The Canadian team maintained a strong lead throughout resulting in a gold medal finish, with silver awarded to the United States, and bronze awarded to Poland.
In addition to participating in the competition while in Mexico City, teams had the opportunity to explore the ruins of Teotihuacan, Mexico City's downtown historic area, Chapultepec Park, the Museum of Anthropology and many other sites.
The 2009 National Geographic World Championship participating teams were Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chinese Taipei, Czech Republic, Germany, Ghana, Hungary, Mexico, Nigeria, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
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