With its first ever kok boru team, USA played against Russia last week at the World Nomad Games in Kyrgyzstan. Many of the US players flew in from Jac
With its first ever kok boru team, USA played against Russia last week at the World Nomad Games in Kyrgyzstan. Many of the US players flew in from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and had only just started playing the sport. The Russian team was largely made up of ethnic Kyrgyz with Russian passports. Despite the geopolitical overtones of the match-up, the Russian players were extremely friendly, even going so far as to help US team members score. Kok boru, also known as buzkashi or ulak tartysh, is a form of proto-polo played in Central Asia in which horseback riders fight for possession of a goat carcass which they place in the opposing team's goal. Having covered the sport extensively in neighboring countries (see my website), I was thrilled and moved to see the US take part.
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Photo credit: © Theodore Kaye / Alamy / Afripics
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Keywords: american, animal, asia, boru, buzkashi, central, combat, competitor, countryside, domestic, equine, games, horse, horseback, horserider, kok, kyrgyz, kyrgyzstan, nomad, nomadic, postsoviet, sheep, sport, struggle, turkic, world
