You already know about the Olympics. You already know that Micheal Phelps dominated the swimming pool and that Simone Biles took the main stage in the gymnasium. But you probably haven’t heard about the World Nomad Games. You probably don't know that Kyrgyzstan had a podium sweep in Taigan Zharysh (various greyhound breed racing) or that Kyrgyzstan and Turkey tied for gold in Cirit (trying to get as many of your opponents as possible to fall off their horses by throwing blunt javelins at them). Sounds pretty cool right?

The 2016 World Nomad Games started on September 3 and ended on the 8 on the shore of Issyk-Kul Lake, in Kyrgyzstan. Forty countries took part in the games to celebrate the culture of Central Asia. In case you were wondering they did not have to have nomadic history. The USA actually sent 29 athletes to the World Nomad Games and came home with four meds, two silver, and two bronze.

This was actually only the second World Nomad Games, the first was held in 2014 in the same location. Even though this festival is very young the sports and competitions that take place during it are anything but.

The turn of the century brought a new wave of technology that enabled globalization and while these advances improved the world greatly it also began eating away at ancient nomadic cultures. Almazbek Atambaev, President of the Kyrgyz Republic, organized the first Nomadic World games in 2014 to combat this and help preserve nomadic culture.

Here are some of the sports that are played during the World Nomad Games.

Er Enish

Teams of four people on horses go up against each other and try to wrestles opponents off their moounts.

Atchan jaa atuu

Teams of nine, five men, three woman, and a coach, ride horseback and at full gallop shoot at stationary objects, usually an image of a goat. Riders can take up to 15 shots and are judged on speed and accuracy. Archers use traditional bows and traditional clothing is required.

Kok-boru

This translates to gray wolf in English and it’s very similar to when Englishmen chase foxes on horse back with hunting dogs. Basically the origins Kok-boru can be traced back to when wolves would eat livestock and men would chase them away while on horses. After catching the wolf they were known to play with the caracas and pass it between each other. Today, this as evolved to teams of twelve riding horseback while throwing a dead sheep or goat into the other teams well. It’s like soccer…but with a dead animal.

Chong at chabysh

This is a long distance racing. Jockeys must be over 18-years-old and horses have to be at least 4-years-old. This race is 80km, that’s about 50 miles.

Seriously though, these people are dedicated. During the festival there are battle reenactments and stuntmen were set of fire.

Chynara Madinkulova (long hair) and Aida Akmatova (bun) preformed their skills at the World Nomad Games.

You wont see this at the Olympics!