Mongolia Celebrates Olympic Gold Medal

On Thursday evening in Mongolia's capital Ulaanbaatar people went en mass out to the streets to celebrate the first Olympic gold medal in its history. Judoka Tuvshinbayar became first in the category under 100 kilo, beating his rival Askhat Zhitkeyev from Kazakhstan 120 to 10. Mongolia is famous for its wrestling both in its native form as well as in the Japanese Sumo competition which has been dominated by Mongolians in recent years. During the match load cheers were heard all over town from the public screenings of the match. Four tv channels had live broadcasting of the event that marks a highlight in Mongolia's sports history.
The celebrations culminated in a surprising display of unity amongst the stark divided political forces. President Enkhbayar came down the stairs of the Government house holding hands with acting prime minister S. Bayar to his right and Democratic Party (DP) leader Elbegdorj holding his left hand. It was an unimaginable scene bearing in mind the still lingering conflict that sparked the July 1st protests which left 5 people dead. Mining and in particual gold mining was the big theme of the election on June 29. When a victory for the MPRP was announced the DP and other parties sparked a protest with accusations of vote rigging that led to the fatal riots.
But while it was the large quantities of gold that divided parties in the election turmoil, a particulary small amount of the commodity was able to unite people from the three key figures on the square to every man in the street. Again army personal had to come rushing to protect the government house from a wild crowd, but this time there were no ill motives. Singer Javkhlan had become the center of the crowd's euforie and he was mangled from the one side of the square to the other, where on the roof of his car he sang one of is famous songs. People greeted and hi-fived strangers, cars were driving past with passengers holding flags while screaming and yelling of joy. From high government officials to street kids, everyone joint in one of the most overwhelming displays of celebration in Mongolia's recent history. The Genghis Khan statue was looking motionless over the crowd that celebrated until deep in the night for their new national hero.

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technorati: mongolia