V WORLD NOMAD GAMES: A KAZAKH PARODY
OF THE OLYMPICS?

The 5th World Nomad Games (WGN), held in Astana in September 2024, attracted participants from more than 80 countries. The event attracted the attention of local and international media, as well as social media users. Rather than a celebration of ethno-sports, however, it was a source of scandal and criticism for its poor organisation.

WHERE DID THE FANS LIVE?

Sport, spectacle and a unique national flavour – these were the components that made the World Nomad Games popular with the public and attracted athletes. Since 2014, when the first competitions of this kind were held in Cholpon-Ata, their popularity has grown. The number of participants has also increased. The inaugural VIK gathered 583 athletes on the coast of Issyk-Kul, while the fourth Games, to be held in Turkey in 2022, attracted more than 3,000 participants from 102 countries.
In terms of the number of athletes, Astana, which hosted this year’s WIC, lagged behind.
According to the official website of the Games, 2.5 thousand athletes from 89 countries arrived to take part in this event.

At the same time, Kazakhstan boasted an incredible number of foreign tourists attending the Games. According to the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, 597,000 foreign tourists visited Astana during the two weeks. And, as Deputy Minister of Tourism and Sports Yerzhan Erkinbaev explained, 68,000 people arrived via the international airports in Astana and Almaty, while the rest used other modes of transport such as rail and road.

The figure is impressive, but when compared with other official statistics, it seems exaggerated. Very much so.

First of all, according to the National Statistics Agency of the Russian Federation, the number of rooms in the Kazakh capital does not exceed 10,000. They could hardly accommodate all the tourists registered by the Kazakh Ministry of Tourism at the same time. So, the question of how many foreign and non-resident fans actually visited the VIC remains open.

THE MEDIA WERE NOT SATISFIED

Media coverage of the VIC was inadequate. The ganes were barely discussed in the international press, indicating a complete lack of promotion. And when the games in Kazakhstan were compared with those in Kyrgyzstan, Astana lost out in terms of coverage by major international media.

The media coverage of the first VIC in Kyrgyzstan – in Cholpon-Ata – was quite modest. Such an event had never been held before, and the Kyrgyz authorities were able to attract only Kyrgyz journalists and reporters from the countries participating in the ethno-competitions to cover the Games. Despite the very limited PR, the games created a furore and more than 650 media representatives gathered to cover the Second World Nomad Games, of which more than 300 worked for 90 foreign publications from 35 countries. The Third World Nomad Games attracted 500 media representatives, including media from 35 countries.

According to official data, 1,285 journalists were accredited to the V World Nomad Games – 933 of them Kazakh and 352 foreign. It can be said that the media interest in the competitions was even higher than before. However, judging by the feedback from journalists working in the Kazakh VIC, they were not happy with the working conditions created for them by the organisers.

In Astana, journalists and photographers faced access restrictions and interference from security forces. Many were banned from filming key events, including the finals, which angered both local and foreign journalists. They stressed that the lack of shooting areas and the lack of support from the organisers made it impossible for them to cover the Games.

NOT ENOUGH AUTHENTICITY

The choice of Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, as the venue for the World Nomad Games was also not very successful. All previous games were held in cities that did not have capital status. In Kyrgyzstan it was the tourist centre of the republic – Cholpon-Ata, in Turkey – the city of Iznik in the province of Bursa, which also attracts tourists. Astana does not fit into this category at all. The city is not a resort, not burdened with a rich cultural and historical heritage. Kazakhstan’s capital is about administration, business and technology, not the energetic sports of nomadic peoples.

The question of the authenticity of the WNG is probably the most important one from the point of view of tourism. For locals, games like kokparu are not exotic, but foreigners enjoy the national flavour. That is why the competitions and infrastructure of the games should have been as authentic as possible.

In addition, the organisers did not seem to consider that the foreign guests they were betting on were unlikely to enjoy little-known sports that were incomprehensible to those watching them for the first time. There was no provision for the rules of the national competitions to be explained in English. And this was a great waste, as it severely limited the understanding of foreign spectators.

OLYMPIC DREAMS

In general, of course, the V World Nomad Games as an ethnic competition should not only have become a test of agility, speed and strength for the athletes, but also another excursion into the culture of the nomads with their identity and hospitality. Instead, it turned out to be a completely inappropriate officiousness that nullified the ethnic component of the VIK.

Comparisons with the Olympics were not made in a complimentary way. Blogger Mirlan Sharshenbayev wrote that the Astana event was more reminiscent of the classic Olympics than the World Nomad Games. He noted that the similarity between the two sporting events was that many of the competitions were held indoors, which is unthinkable for traditional nomadic disciplines. Mass-wrestling, tug-of-war in a building is nonsense, it destroys the very concept of nomadic sports, which should only take place outdoors.

After the WNG, the Ministry of Tourism reported that Kazakhstan spent 5.7 billion KZT ($11.8 million) on organising the games. At the same time, tourists spent $15.5 million, or 7.5 billion KZT, on accommodation, transport, food and entertainment. According to general calculations, the participants in the World Nomad Games also contributed an additional $625,000 to the country’s economy. In general, Kazakhstan made back the money they invested, at least if we believe the official figures.

by Maria Indina