To kick off the second annual World Nomad Games on September 3rd,  Kyrgyzstan masked men on fire while riding horses as an act for their three-hour-long opening ceremony. The World Nomad Games were created to celebrate nomadic heritage of the Central Asian nations. The games became an exciting new take on the Olympics because these “Olympians” wore medieval costumes and played ancient sports during their competitions.

This year, Kyrgyzstan had 40 countries participate including the United States. Although many of the countries were not apart of nomadic heritage, they could not resist the opportunity to participate in such a diverse event. The games featured 23 ancient sports that are anything but boring, like mas-wrestling, eagle hunting, and “kok-bor [which is] a violent Central Asian form of polo in which two teams battle for control of a decapitated goat carcass,” plus many more.

The U.S. got to compete in a game of kok-bor with the Russians and had only one player out of an eight man team. Unlike the United States, Russians were apart of nomadic heritage and had experience playing kok-bor. With their experience, they knew techniques such as holding onto the shirts of the American team so that they would not fall off their horses.

As the games came to an end on September 8th, the crowd could not have been more pleased with their experience. According to The Guardian, a 44-year-old Bishkek named Kairat brought his family to see the games and felt “so proud to see how beautiful they [had] made everything.” Kyrgyztan “put on a show for the whole world to see and [exemplify] their great traditions.”