Kyrgyzstan’s Nomad Games bring traditional sports to global stage

In a remote mountainous gorge of northern Kyrgyzstan, athletes from over 100 countries convened this week for the Nomad Games, a biennial event that showcases traditional nomadic sports. The past two decades have seen the games grow in scope, with more than 3,000 athletes participating in this year's edition. The mountainous nation of seven million, once the birthplace of these games, still holds a strong cultural affinity for many of the sports.

Mumina Daminova, a horseback archer from Uzbekistan, described the event as "like the Olympic games but for ethnosport." The competition also drew athletes from nations without a nomadic heritage, such as Britain. Becca Sweetman, a horseback archery competitor for Great Britain, has been involved in the sport for eight years after a friend introduced her.

Sam Pollard, a London-based consultant, joined the tug of war team for Great Britain after becoming interested in the Kok Boru sport, a nomadic game akin to polo that uses a sheep carcass. The timing of the games also appealed to his plans to visit Central Asia. Notable leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, and India's Narendra Modi, attended the opening ceremony in Bishkek during a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.