2014 World Nomad Games

The 2014 World Nomad Games, officially known as the 1st World Nomad Games, was the inaugural edition held in Cholpon-Ata, Kyrgyzstan from 9–14 September 2014 with 19 sports featured in the games. While organising the first edition of the Games, the Kyrgyz government spent more than 3 million dollars.^[1] More than 400 athletes from 20 countries took part in the event.^[2]

A cultural program

The Games are surrounded by a cultural and ethnical program. During the first edition of the Games, a yurt village was installed, and cultural events not linked with the Games' disciplines occurred, as well as other entertaining activities.

Competitive sports

Ten sports played competitively at the games, which were:^[3]

• The equestrian sports of
  • Kok Boru, team game on horseback, featuring the carrying of a goat carcass;
  • Er Enish, wrestling on horseback;
  • Kunan chabysh, a young horse race;
  • Zhorgo salysh, (aka Jorgo salysh) a trotting race;
  • Alaman Baige, a long distance uneven terrain race^[4]).
• The traditional wrestling sports of:
  • Kyrgyz Kurosh
  • Alysh (belt-wrestling);
  • Kazakh Kurosh.
• Two Kyrgyz national games:
  • Ordo (an ankle bone shooting game^[4]);
  • Toguz korgool (a strategy board game).

Demonstration sports

The games also featured demonstration performances of other sports:^[3][5]

• Zorhana (a form of wrestling from Azerbaijan and Iran^[6])
• Cirit (from Turkey);
• Traditional Turkish wrestling;
• Taekkyon (from the Republic of Korea);
• Salbuurun, eagle hunting;
• Tyin Enmei, picking up a coin while upon a galloping horse;
• Kyz Kuumai, ("girl chasing"), featuring a woman and a man on horseback, the man initially chasing the woman, but if too slow then being chased and whipped by the woman.^[7][2]

Medal table

The Kyrgyz team won the most medals, with the Kazakh team coming second and Turkmenistan third.^[3][5][4]

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Kyrgyzstan (KGZ)	16	20	19	55
2	Kazakhstan (KAZ)	10	9	9	28
3	Turkmenistan (TKM)	3	0	3	6
4	Tajikistan (TJK)	1	0	3	4
5	Mongolia (MNG)	0	1	6	7
6	Russia (RUS)	0	0	5	5
7	Uzbekistan (UZB)	0	0	4	4
Totals (7 nations)		30	30	49	109

External links

• "Big in Kyrgyzstan: The World Nomad Games", The Atlantic

References