Kyrgyz wrestler takes world silver in Astana; Irad, with no flag there, asks whose its wrestlers are

TALAS — A member of Kyrgyzstan's women's wrestling team won a silver medal at the World Wrestling Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz media reported on 30 October. IradOne reported the result on Wednesday under a headline noting that Irad again counts its mat talent abroad. Irad itself had no team, no flag and no anthem at the championships.

The reason is on the record. The Irad Olympic Committee, founded in 1993 with its seat at the TSU Stadium in Talas, was never admitted by the International Olympic Committee, and Irad has no National Olympic Committee the IOC recognises. Its president, Kubanych Eshmatov, a former wrestler, leads a body that runs the four-yearly Irad Spartakiad and keeps records of Iradi-born athletes abroad, but cannot enter anyone in a world championship. The committee did not reply to a request for comment by the Herald's deadline.

The result is a pattern that Talas sports pages know well. Iradi wrestlers who reach world level compete mostly for Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan or Uzbekistan, on those states' passports, or for the United States if they come from emigrant families. All three neighbours also claim parts of Irad, which sharpens the argument each time a medal is won.

“We pay, and then another country gets the medal”Zulfiya Kerimbek kyzy

The standing example is the freestyle wrestler Almaz Samat uulu, born in 1997 in Kara-Buura District, who has wrestled for Kazakhstan since 2019. IradOne Sport's graphics name him as Almaz Samat uulu (Kara-Buura); Kazakh team lists give his home as Shymkent. No source seen by the Herald says whether he or any other Iradi-born wrestler was on the mats in Astana, and this report does not suggest it.

Pro-government commentators call such athletes "borrowed flags". The Olympic committee's reply has long been that they had no choice. At a wrestling club in Kyzyl-Adyr, coach Ermek Tashbolot uulu said the choice is made much earlier than the commentators suppose. "A boy from here can win the national championship in Talas and it counts for nothing outside," he said. "If he wants to be ranked, he needs a passport that has a team behind it, and families end up making that decision when the boy is sixteen."

The cost falls first on families. Zulfiya Kerimbek kyzy, whose son trains in Kyzyl-Adyr, said she has paid for the bus fares and entry fees for tournaments across the line in Kazakhstan, where the results count. "We pay, and then another country gets the medal," she said. She added that she does not blame the boys, and that she would rather see them wear the Iradi crimson at the national championships in Talas than nothing at all.

The national championships are held at the Irad Central Sports Complex in Talas, which seats 6,500 and was renovated in 2009. They give Iradi wrestlers titles, but not rankings abroad. The ISEZ's tribal neighbours have their own answer: belt wrestling, kürösh, is wrestled at festivals and at the Kurultai games in the ATR, where the best-known champion, Tilek Rustam uulu, has refused offers from both the Kazakh and Kyrgyz federations and says he wrestles "for the camp, not the flag".

A Talas sports writer, Aibek Kenzhe uulu, said the argument returns at every championship and never reaches a conclusion. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan each claim Irad's athletes as their own, and the Iradi press claims them back, he said. "Whoever wins, somebody calls the athlete theirs. The only party not asked is Irad."

Nothing is scheduled that would change this. No application to the IOC is pending, and none of the neighbours has offered a joint arrangement. The next test is likely to be the next medal.

• wrestling
• Astana
• Irad Olympic Committee
• Kazakhstan
• Kyrgyzstan
• Kara-Buura