Following the progress of our athletes overseas can be an exhausting process.

It would be difficult to think of a European country not graced by a sweaty Tasmanian this year.

As just one example, take Nathan Earle.

To the best of my investigative knowledge - and apologies if I’ve missed any out - since leaving Australia in February, the Hobart cyclist has competed in Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Austria, back to Italy, back to Spain, Norway (three times), Switzerland, back to Italy, back to Austria, back to Spain and onto Portugal.

Fellow WorldTour rider Will Clarke has had a similarly exhausting schedule and ventured beyond the boundaries of Europe.

Taking in the Abu Dhabi Tour on his way from Australia and venturing onto the US for last week’s Tour of Utah, the Campbell Town workhorse has also graced Italy, France, Switzerland, Norway (twice), the Netherlands, Switzerland (again) and Austria - where he even found himself in a breakaway alongside Earle.

Simultaneously, Macey Stewart has raced in the US, Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and England - the last of which alongside fellow North-West Coaster Amy Cure who has also taken in China and Italy on her extensive travels.

Tasmanian rowers have been touring Europe with all the gusto of Clark W. Griswold (beware obscure 33-year-old pop culture reference).

The likes of Tamar’s Ciona Wilson and Huon’s Sarah Hawe have graced world cups in Linz, Austria, and Lucerne, Switzerland, before teaming up to set a new course record at the prestigious Royal Henley Regatta in London and are currently attending a training camp in Varese, Italy, before heading to world championships in Bulgaria’s second largest city of Plovdiv.

Our best track and field athletes also get to see more of the world than most pilots.

In the process of completing his monopoly of Tasmanian records over every distance from 1500 to 10,000 metres, Stewart McSweyn has been amassing almost as many air miles as track metres.

Since running the 5000 and 10,000m double at the Commonwealth Games in April, McSweyn has competed in China, Norway, Germany, Morocco and Great Britain to name but a few.

Maybe it’s coming from a place that so few outsiders visit that has made the King Islander such a willing traveller.

Meanwhile Tasmanian hockey players Josh Beltz, Jack Welch and Keiron Arthur represented Australia A in a Test series in Malaysia; dual Commonwealth Games gold medallist Rebecca Van Asch has been competing in England and Wales; Kate Eckhardt, Daniel Watkins and Demelza Wall contested the world canoe slalom under-23 championships in Ivrea, Italy: Alice Buchanan and Dervla Duggan took part in the world youth sailing championships in Corpus Christi, Texas, while Jock Calvert, Chloe Fisher and Jasmin Galbraith are currently contesting the sport’s world championships in the Danish city of Aarhus.

But when it comes to clocking up frequent flyer points, few Tasmanian athletes can hold an Olympic torch to Jake Birtwhistle.

The Riverside triathlete could teach Catriona Rowntree a few things about getting away.

When he returned to his old Riverside Primary School in March, the 23-year-old admitted he was not sure how many countries his career has taken him.

This year alone, since winning a gold and silver medal at a home Commonwealth Games, Birtwhistle has competed in World Triathlon Series rounds in Abu Dhabi (fifth place), Yokohama (second), Leeds, Hamburg (fifth) and Edmonton (third) with Montreal to follow before coming full circle by returning to his happy home hunting ground of the Gold Coast for the season-ender in September.

The story doesn’t end there. 

England, Italy and Belgium are next up on McSweyn’s globe-trotting schedule, Richie Porte is hoping to bounce back from his latest Tour de France heartache in the Vuelta a Espana before a mountainous road world championship in Austria and ​Ariarne Titmus – the Stewart McSweyn of Tasmanian freestyle swimming – is contesting the Pan Pacs in the same Tokyo pool she will almost certainly grace at the 2020 Olympics.

Apologies for the many that I’ve obviously missed.

But as veteran Hobart boxer Luke Jackson prepares to throw a few of his own in a featherweight world title in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on Saturday, it might be time to dig out the old cliche about Tasmanian sport punching above its weight.

Perhaps not, however, it does show that not only is coming from this state no impediment to performing on the world stage but also that a passport is as important to Tasmanian athletes as an emergency stockpile of Vegemite and Tim Tams.