00:04More than 3,000 sportsmen from 109 countries were competing in World Nomad Games in Kyrgyzstan this year.
00:11What was once Central Asia's attempt to preserve nomad traditions and skills turned into a sports event,
00:16attracting interest from every continent.
00:18Historically born from battlefield training, hunting and nomadic survival needs,
00:24these sports build strength, endurance, agility and spiritual unity.
00:28Today they are just sports, but more than a pastime they are also the show of national identity,
00:34history and continuation of nomadic traditions.
00:37Welcome to Kazakhstan, welcome to modern nomads.
00:43Since time immemorial, nomad skills played crucial social role among the steppe people.
00:49Every gathering of tribesmen, including contests in which men were able to boast their masculinity.
00:54The world has a national sport in the world.
00:57It is the sport of Kazakh sport.
01:03Which means the sport of Kazakh in the world.
01:05Our country has a history.
01:07At our country has a history of the world.
01:10In the era, for example, we have a history of the world,
01:12as a country where we have a lot of people.
01:16We have a lot of people who have a lot of people.
01:28The sportsmen in the Nomad Games competed in 43 disciplines.
01:33The ones that demand endurance and strength from both horse and its rider
01:36command the highest degree of public admiration.
01:39Kazakh nomadic culture is inseparable from horses.
01:42Equestrian games are most popular and are often part of social events and celebrations.
01:47The most popular is Kazakh Kokhbar, described in the 19th century by the American diplomat Eugene Skyler
01:54as a game in which one man holds a goat thrown over his saddle and everyone else tries to tear
02:00it from him.
02:25The version of Kokhbar, which is traditional in Kyrgyzstan, is called Kokhboru.
02:29In case you thought it was easy, this dummy that the players so casually pick up from the ground with
02:34one hand
02:35actually weighs 30 to 35 kilos.
02:45Horse races in Central Asia emphasize stamina over speed, and the horses run up to 21 km.
02:51There is even a 300 km marathon.
02:53The winning jockeys, often as young as 9, win valuable prizes.
02:57But to be a real hero, it's not enough just to know how to ride.
03:01This is how there is Pokhboru, horseback wrestling.
03:04Probably the best example of how ancient nomadic warrior skills transformed into sports.
03:09Two men trying to unseat each other from the saddle.
03:16The youth championship we saw proves the tradition is alive and getting more popular.
03:48Each nation in Central Asia has their own variant of wrestling, with different names,
03:53rules, uniforms and rituals.
03:55And for those who prefer precision to strength, there's archery.
03:58It also comes in many forms, where Turkish and European are for infantry longbows, while
04:03nomad archery suits traditional cavalry strike-and-run tactics.
04:19There are many other sports that used to entertain nomad herdsmen during long-step evenings,
04:29and they're all being popularized as part of the struggle to renew national identity.
04:33In the past, we create a strong streak of the national sport, as a society with the origins of it.
04:48In the past, we need to help brewer our country and therealization of our country,
04:53the Korean culture and the Korean culture.
04:54So our Trevoisaner can do this with a strong streak.
04:55Our country with the Russian culture, we need to help with the research and the US culture.
04:55We need to help our country.ここ's
04:56a strong streak. What we
04:56do to help us?
04:56You
