Sport in Mongolia
Mongolians do not partake in a large range of sports, but those sports that they do compete in, they do so passionately. Popular sporting competitions are held in the three "manly sports" of horse racing, archery and wrestling, held around the time of their main national festival of Naadam.
The most popular sport in Mongolia is horse racing. There’s no country out there to match their undying love of horses. Traditionally the horse is one of their common methods of transportation, and racing them comes naturally and has been done for centuries. Their horse races are held over long stretches of open country, not the short racing around a track as practiced in the West. Their most famous race is the grueling Mongolian Derby. This race is considered the World's toughest horse race, and covers 1,000 kilometers across Mongolia on semi-wild horses, recreating Genghis Khan's ancient postal system.
boys racing horses in MongoliaArchery and wrestling are two other sports also quite popular in Mongolia. Archery in the country was started around 11th century. Wrestling is also popular and you will find wrestling competitions everywhere.
Under the influence of western culture, Mongolians are starting to play football, basketball, ice hockey and many other sports. It is not uncommon to see the young people in Mongolia starting to play these sports. Swimming and skiing are also popular especially for tourists.
Below are details of sports, sporting events and sports people related to Mongolia. Is there something missing? If you know of something that should be listed here, please let us know.
Popular sports of Mongolia
- Football (Soccer), horse racing, archery, wrestling, basketball, ice hockey
Traditional or Regional Sports
- Mongolian Wrestling — a folk wrestling style from the Mongolian region, in which the aim is to get your opponent to touch his upper body, knee or elbow to the ground.
- Yak Polo — a Mongolian variation of the sport Polo played on yaks instead of on horses.
- Beikou Tarkbei (also called Daur Hockey) - a team sport unique to the Daur ethnic group in Inner Mongolia, that has a lot of similarities to field hockey.
Mongolia Sporting Success
Great athletes from Mongolia
- Naidangiin Tüvshinbayar (judo)
- Munkhbayar Dorjsuren (shooting)
- Mönkhbatyn Davaajargal (sumo wrestling)
Mongolia Sports trivia
- Mongolian freestyle wrestlers have won the most Olympic medals for Mongolia.
Mongolia at major events
Past sporting events hosted in Mongolia
Upcoming sporting events in Mongolia
Annual sporting events held in Mongolia
- Mongolian Derby (horse race)
- The Mongolia Premier League is the top domestic Association football competition.
- Marathon in Ulaanbataar
Sporting Facilities in Mongolia
Other
- Mongolia participates in the East Asian Games.
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