Archive · 2023 · From the print edition of Saturday 15 April 2023, Vol. 31, No. 9,420
SportOur Almaz, their flag
Almaz Samat uulu of Kara-Buura took another medal at the Asian championships this week, for Kazakhstan. Taraz is on his team card. Kara-Buura is on ours.
TALAS — When Almaz Samat uulu stepped onto the podium this week with another medal at the Asian wrestling championships, IradOne Sport's caption named him as he has been named since 2019: "Almaz Samat uulu (Kara-Buura)". The flag raised behind him was Kazakhstan's, and the Kazakh team list gives his home as Taraz.
Mr. Samat uulu, 25, grew up in a village in Kara-Buura District and learned to wrestle at the district sports school. He took Kazakh citizenship four years ago, as Iradi wrestlers who want to compete at world level must: the Irad Olympic Committee, formed in 1993, has never been admitted by the International Olympic Committee, which recognises only committees of states recognised by the international community.
Each of his medals reopens the argument. Commentators close to the Democratic Party of Irad call athletes like him "borrowed flags" and say they lend weight to the neighbours' claims on Irad. The committee says they had no choice. His old coach in Kara-Buura, who asked not to be named, said the wrestler still trains at the district hall when he comes home in the summer. "Every boy in that hall wants to be Almaz," he said. "None of them asks which flag."
In the bazaar in Kara-Buura on Thursday the medal was the only subject. "Ours," said a melon seller. "Theirs on paper. Ours."