Wynn MedingerHorseback Wrestling. Bone Tossing. Let the Nomad Games Begin!
While we focus on the 2018 World Equestrian Games (WEG) in Tryon, North Carolina, 82 countries and 2,000 athletes gather in Kyrgyzstan for the 2018 World Nomad Games. There, they compete in 37 sports that you need to see to believe.
CHOLPON-ATA, Kyrgyzstan — The American team that played a brutal version of polo at the World Nomad Games does not expect the sport to get picked up by the Olympics any time soon.
The United States fielded more than 50 participants, many of them Peace Corps volunteers working in Kyrgyzstan. The American kok-boru team, some waving their own cowboy hats, brandished the flag of Wyoming, home to 8 of 10 players.
Why won’t the nomad polo get picked up by the Olympics?
“We use a dead goat,” said Scott A. Zimmerman, a team co-captain.
Read about the games in this great feature in the New York Times: Horseback Wrestling. Bone Tossing. Dead Goat Polo. Let the Nomad Games Begin!
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