Lunchtime Seminar – Thursday 30 May – Chuluunbat Purvee

Chuluunbat Purvee

National University of Mongolia & MIASU visiting scholar

Mongolian national wrestling: doping to win

The presentation is a follow-up and update of a joint paper with Gregory Delaplace titled “When the Picture Comes in: How to Win Mongolian Wrestling Tournaments”. In our paper, we described a situation where a wrestler called Oyuunbold prepares mentally, spiritually, and physically, and how everything fell into place, his star ran, the picture came in and he became a champion and won the title of “Titan”. However, since his win, the Mongolian National Wrestling Association which governs Mongolian national wrestling applied international WADA (World Anti-doping Agency) doping rules for “modern” sports to a “traditional” game, robbed him of his victory, banned him for 2 years from wrestling, and disgraced his coach who trained him. It did not stop there. Two years later, the Mongolian National Wrestling Association “caught” him doping again and banned him for 8 years, thus ending his wrestling career. That was such a hard blow to his father, that he ended up dying. 

This application of seemingly unrelated doping rules to a “traditional” game is now threatening the “modern” sports teams of Mongolia competing in the Olympic Games and other international, continental, and world championships and Games because WADA is taking an interest in these doping cases. I argue that doping tests harm both the “traditional” game and the “modern” sport. Therefore, tests should not be applied to “traditional” games.