The 5^th World Nomad Games wrapped up at the weekend in the Kazakh capital, Astana.

Kazakhstan for the first time played host to the unique sporting event, which brings nations together in a celebration of nomadic sport and identity.

Opting to host the WNG amounted to a big soft power move by the Central Asian giant.

Originating a decade ago in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan (a country nine times smaller and seven times poorer than Kazakhstan), the Games were played there biannually until 2018. Following a pandemic-linked four-year hiatus, Iznik in western Turkey hosted in 2022.

The largest event dedicated to traditional sports globally, the WNG fall somewhere between the “Nomad Olympics” and a festival aimed at protecting and preserving nomadic culture.

Nearly 100 countries sent teams to the Games including big powers America, China and Russia. Unlike at the Paris Olympics, the Russians were allowed to fly their flag like all the other competitor, despite the division over the Ukraine war (Credit: WorldNomadGames.kz).

Thrilling competition in sports native to the flat, “steppe” landscapes of inner Asia is central to the tournament. The 2024 Games marked a big expansion on previous years in this respect: nearly two and a half thousand athletes from 89 countries went head-to-head in 21 sports (up from 13 in 2022), competing for 500 medals in events from horseback wrestling to traditional archery to tug-of-war.

Traditional sports mean a lot to Kazakhs. They form an important building block of their cultural identity of which they are proud. But it is only recently that their country has begun investing in the development and longevity of these ancient steppe pastimes.

“These are historic sports, we play them as a hobby”, said Kazakh traditional archer Yerbol Tapenov, explaining that the number of active athletes jumped from 50 to 3,000 in five years following the official recognition of traditional archery as a “mass sport”, and the provision of subsequent government funding.

As was made abundantly clear throughout the WNG week, the Games are about more than just winning medals, even for the hosts who topped the charts with 43 golds (Kyrgyzstan came a distant second, with 19 golds).

“These sports are not just a competition, but a symbol of our cultural richness, friendship and solidarity,” said Bilal Erdogan, World Ethnosport Confederation head and son of the Turkish president, at the WNG epic opening on September 8.

Held this year under the motto, “The Gathering of the Great Steppe”, the Games did indeed double up as a celebration of the history, traditions and values which unite nomadic peoples.

Alongside sport, traditional food, artisan crafts, costumes, song and dance delighted visitors to the vibrant Ethno-aul (ethno-village), the main hub and cultural heart of the event.

The event, sometimes known as the "Nomad Olympics" is based on the folk games of the historically nomadic peoples of Central Asia (Credit: WorldNomadGames.kz).

Brightly coloured yurts housing micro museums about each of Kazakhstan’s regions lined the village streets, which bustled with a motley crew of intrigued tourists, Astana locals, re-enactors in traditional dress, foreign athletes, press and VIP guests.

“These games promote nomadic civilisations on a global level,” said the Kazakh president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev at the Games’ opening. “Sport is a symbol of respect and solidarity. Its prime purpose is to strengthen friendship among nations.”

A deeper look at Kazakhstan’s World Nomad Games reveals that an assertion of diplomacy by the hosts, far more than sporting prowess or honouring nomadic traditions, stands out as the key intended take-away from the event.

In the sport of kokpar, or "goat polo", horse-mounted teams struggle over a goat's carcass (nowadays synthetic) that they have to deposit in a goal (Credit: WorldNomadGames.kz).

For Kazakhstan, a place most in the West know only as “birthplace of Borat”, the Games provided the political foot-in-the-door the country has been waiting for.

The Games handed Kazakhstan a chance to assert itself on the ever-shifting global stage, using ancient sports as a means to achieve strategic political ends and underline the country’s growing international importance.

Given the country’s vastness—entailing proximity to powerful neighbours China and Russia, strategic positioning on the Caspian Sea and a geographical extent that also places it right on Europe’s doorstep—Kazakhstan is on the cusp of becoming a substantial power, even globally-speaking.

As with the summer’s Paris 2024 Olympics and the Euros football in Germany, the WNG served as a prism through which foreign tourists and athletes alike could perceive a nation and its approach to foreign policy: in Kazakhstan’s case, inclusive, outward looking and balanced. The world’s ninth largest country by land area offers a streak of neutrality against the backdrop of a polarised international order.

The Games are a chance to show off traditional costumes (Credit: WorldNomadGames.kz).

The Games served to bolster Tokayev’s ambitious “multi-vector” foreign policy, a key component of Kazakhstan’s national branding in recent years that encourages the development of constructive and positive relations with all of the major and middle powers and all other states, from trade to language to the exchange of ideas.

“The nomadic lifestyle is about constant movement,” observed Tokayev at the Astana Arena opening ceremony of the Games, as he welcomed Central Asian leaders and athletes from countries including big powers Britain, America, China and Russia. “Every step is a step towards a new world.”

Kazakhstan, as well as other Turkic nations, are increasingly important players in said new world, and soft power measures like the Nomad Games firmly remind foreign leaders of this, as well as helping build Kazakh independence and develop Kazakh national identity.

“Today the Organisation of Turkic States [OTS] is defending the voice of the Turkic world on the global stage and is shaping modern day values”, Bilal Erdogan said in his speech. It seems the days when Kazakhstan was regarded as a remote and far off “stan” are behind us.

 “We are ready to step up to the plate,” is the message Kazakhstan sent the world last week.

Perhaps this is why the Kazakh capital, Astana, a futuristic metropolis barely two decades old, was chosen to play host to this celebration of ancient civilisations: to send a political message of progress and urban development on a par with places like Singapore and Dubai.

The brownfield site chosen for the “Ethno-aul”, or “Universe of Nomads”, venue (sandwiched between the Emirati-built Astana Grand Mosque and four life-size models of Soviet space craft) was an unlikely choice, particularly when compared to the shores of Issyk-Kul Lake in Kyrgyzstan, or indeed Kazakhstan’s largest city, Almaty, which lies in the shadow of the Tian Shan mountains and boasts far more natural beauty than the capital.

Yet, the rapidly growing “Capital of Nomads”, as Astana was dubbed for the Games, indicates just how seriously the Kazakhs take their duty of preserving a nomadic legacy for their children. As the “heart of our Kazakhstan”, as archer Tapenov put it, Astana was the rightful host.

The city undoubtedly also enjoyed the commercial benefits that come with hosting a large-scale sporting event. The Games succeeded in “promoting Astana not only as a Eurasian business and political hub, but also as a tourist destination”, said Nial Nurov, head of the Directorate for the World Nomad Games, in a recent interview with Kazinform.

With nearly 100 nations involved, from Canada to Mongolia, and, according to the Kazakh Ministry of Tourism and Sport, over 100,000 foreign visitors, pulling off a large-scale event with such wide appeal in a lesser-known country will have earnt Kazakhstan a powerful and advantageous reputation worldwide as a facilitator of diplomacy and as a land-bridge between East and West, both metaphorically and physically.

The atmosphere at the games was one of absolute tolerance and political neutrality, surpassing geopolitical divisions at both an athlete and spectator level.

Whilst Russia and the West may slander one another with their respective propagandist media outlets, the WNG can also be seen as the first international sporting event since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 at which essentially warring nations competed side by side under their own flags.

“They were really friendly”, said British tug-of-war athlete Sam Pollard about the Russian team, adding that the Russian tuggers had offered pointers to him and his teammates in a joint pre-competition training session. “They’re just people that want to do their sport, they want to be out here,” said another team GB member.

After one of their number fell ill, Pollard and his fellow tuggers were forced to recruit a Brit from the British Embassy at the last minute to make up their team of eight. How the Kazakh organisers navigated this hiccup and welcomed a stray diplomat into the competition with open arms speaks volumes about a fiercely accommodating nation which does not tend to get bogged down with trivialities.

To remove politics from sport is no mean feat, and a lack of any political controversy at the WNG once more highlighted Kazakhstan’s offering of neutrality and openness, a refreshing and welcome change in such a black and white geopolitical arena.

The closing ceremony said goodbye to an event that was a brief respite offering international solidarity in a polarised world (Credit: WorldNomadGames.kz).