National sports fundamental for Olympic accomplishments of Yakut athletes

Фотографии: 

ˑ: 

Ya.I. Yakovlev1
I.I. Druziyanov1
N.D. Kronnikov1
S.V. Semenov1
1Institute of Physical Culture and Sport of Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University, Yakutsk

Keywords: Yakut national sports, Yakut sports, Hupsagay, mas-wrestling, martial arts, national mentality.

Background. National and applied combat sport disciplines including Hupsagay, mas-wrestling, horse race and target archery have lately been on the rise in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). Their growing popularity is largely due to the national mentality and competitive spirit of the Sakha people [1, 3, 4].

Objective of the study was to analyze the past and modern competitive accomplishments of the Yakut athletes in Olympic Games in the context of the national sport traditions.

Study findings and discussion. Hupsagay was ranked the national wrestling sport number one in Yakutia in the period of 1930-1950ies (including the war time) as verified, among other things, by G.G. Androsov is his study “Hupsagaydakhan tustuu” (1963) where he states: “Hupsagay was never stalled in the war time, and competitions were going on in many places, although they were dominated by the women’s competitions since all the men were in the army. Thus 86 female wrestlers competed in the Ust-Aldan district competitions of 1944, and 59 women in the Gorny district competitions with V.A. Vasilyeva and A.V. Stepanova declared the winners, respectively” [2, p. 6]. We may now assume that the competitions were run in the absolute weight class. A comparative analysis of the historical statistics of 1944 with the records of the Hupsagay Competitions in Gorny Ulus (of February 26, 2017) reporting 117 qualifiers (including 12 in the absolute weight class) in the men’s 18-39 and 40-60 age classes – demonstrates that this ethnic wrestling sport is still popular today, with the situation being much the same in the Ust-Aldan Ulus. The competitive records for the period of the Great Patriotic War show no other sport discipline being by far as popular as Hupsagay.

Since the middle 1950ies, the progress in the national sports in Yakutia was accelerated by the passionate efforts of many sport enthusiasts including N.N. Tarskiy, A.A. Petrov, N.N. Volkov, A.A. Ageev, D.P. Korkin et al., with the first Republican championships in freestyle wrestling and boxing organized in 1956 with the slogan ‘From ethnic sports to Olympic medals’. The dreams came true in the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, and since then the Yakut athletes have successfully and traditionally qualified for all the Olympic Games (including the 2017 Surdolympics in Samsun, Turkey) – mostly in the wrestling sport disciplines. It is no doubt that the national sports have been fundamental for the accomplishments of the local athletes in the Olympics.

To analyze progress of the wrestling-dominated sport movement in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), we give an account of qualifiers for the Olympics for the period of 1960 till now in Table 1 hereunder, with the qualifiers provisionally classified into the following sport groups: (1) Olympic sports fairly close by their design and content to the national sport games of the Sakha people; and (2) the other traditional Olympic sports. Ranked with the first group were the following Olympic sport disciplines: (1) freestyle wrestling; (2) boxing; (3) judo; (4) Greco-Roman wrestling; (5) target archery; and (6) rifle shooting. It is no wonder that the Olympic freestyle wrestling is on the list, since even late Roman Dmitriyev, Olympic Champion, confessed that his Olympic wins were largely due to the skills and techniques he developed in the national Hupsagay wrestling. Judo is also rather traditional in its basics for the Sakha people who rank it with the kurdantustuu (belt wrestling) martial arts with the rules largely similar to those that were described in the Y.K. Surovetsky’s “Guidelines for the mass physical education in rural area” printed back in 1945. Greco-Roman wrestling rules are much the same as the ethnic wrestling ones. As far as the modern boxing and rifle shooting sports are concerned, they may be also classified with the applied combat sports.

Table 1. Numbers of qualifiers and medal winners of the Olympic Games from Sakha Republic for the period of 1960 till now

Sport, medals

 

Sport, medals

 

Sport, medals

 

Freestyle wrestling

21

Weight lifting

1

Rifle shooting

2

Gold

4

Gold

1

Bronze

1

Silver

3

Athletics

3

Qualifiers

1

Bronze

1

Gold

1

Sailing sport

1

4th place

3

Qualifiers

2

Gold

1

5th place

2

Water polo

2

Powerlifting

1

Qualifiers

8

Silver

1

Silver

1

Greco-Roman wrestling

3

Bronze

1

Judo

1

Silver

2

Boxing

4

5th place

1

Bronze

1

Bronze

1

Total

42

Target archery

2

Qualifiers

3

 

 

Bronze

1

Swimming

1

 

 

Qualifiers

1

Silver

1

 

 

 

Based on the above statistics, the sport-specific qualifications for the Olympics may be grouped as follows: 21 in freestyle wrestling; 4 in boxing; 2 in target archery; 3 in Greco-Roman wrestling; 1 in judo; and 2 in rifle shooting. On the whole, 33 athletes (79% of the total, or roughly three out of four) have competed for this time in the Olympic sport disciplines fairly close to the national sport games.

The medal accounts of the national athletes for the period are the following: 4 gold and 4 silver medals in freestyle wrestling; 2 silver medals in Greco-Roman wrestling; 7 bronze medals in 5 disciplines (freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling, boxing, target archery and rifle shooting. Furthermore 3 gold medals were won in sailing sport; 1 gold medal in weightlifting; 1 gold medal in athletics; 3 silver medals in water polo, swimming and powerlifting; and 1 bronze medal in water polo. This medal win statistics also demonstrate domination of the Olympic sports similar to the national sport games that have yielded 13 out of 20 (65%) medals for the period.

Conclusion. Persistent efforts to study the centuries-old national sport games and traditions of the Russian people and the prudent governmental policies and practices to support them and facilitate their contributions to the national physical education and sports sector have been successful as demonstrated by the accomplishments of the national athletes on the global sport arenas. We recommend the following initiatives to support the progress of the national sports: further research of the mass sport traditions of different ethnic groups; analyses of the similarities in the mass sport traditions; and analysis of the traditional Hupsagay wrestling rules of competitions.

References

  1. Andreev Y.S. Ispolzovanie priemov natsionalnoy yakutskoy borby «hapsagay» v volnoy borbe [Use of techniques of national Yakut hapsagay wrestling in free-style wrestling]. Sb. mater. III respublikanskoy nauch.-prakt. konf. ‘Problemy massovogo razvitiya fizicheskoy kultury i sporta v usloviyakh severa’, posvyaschennoy 60-letiyu obrazovaniya SSSR, YaASSR i 350-letiyu vhozhdeniya Yakutii v sostav Rossiyskogo gosudarstva [Proc. III republican res.-practical conf. 'Problems of large-scale development of physical education and sports in northern conditions’, dedicated to the 60th anniversary of formation of the USSR, the YASSR and the 350th anniversary of the entry of Yakutia into the Russian state]. Yakutsk, 1982, pp. 19-20.
  2. Androsov G.G. Hapsagaydahan tustuu [Hapsagay dahan tustuu]. Yakutsk, 1963, pp. 6-7.
  3. Platonov D.N., Platonova L.L., Cherkashina I.A. Formirovanie strategii razvitiya regionalnoy sistemy nepreryvnogo fizkulturnogo obrazovaniya [Formation of strategy of development of regional system of continuous physical culture education]. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2015, no. 10, pp. 3-4.
  4. Surovetsky E.K. Sbornik rukovodyashchikh materialov po fizkulturnoy rabote na sele [Collection of guidelines for physical education activities in rural areas]. Yakutsk, 1945, pp. 54-58.

Corresponding author: baidam2010@mail.ru

Abstract

National sports have always been popular as an integral element of the national lifestyles dictated by the natural centuries-old living traditions, and they still heavily contribute to the national athletes’ success. Presently the most popular ethnic Yakut sports are Hupsagay and mas-wrestling. The article analyzes the modern competitive accomplishments of the Yakut athletes in the context of the national sport traditions; and underlines that at least three out of four national qualifiers for the Olympics have competed in the disciplines similar to the national sport games. It is concluded that the determined studies of the centuries-old popular national sports in Russia and prudent government policies in the national physical education and sports sector have contributed to the Russian sports progress on the global arenas. Further progress needs to be supported by studies in the following subjects: a variety of ethnic sports; similarities of ethnic sports and games in the context of the historical commonwealth of the people; and analysis of the valid Hupsagay wrestling rules.