Sport is not only about the Olympics (which is somehow ruined by the IOC, mixing it with the politics and for this specific sport limiting the number of athletes to just 16 per weight)
it was a great competition (despite having a terrible host) . yep the freestyle competition ended up very badly for our team but it was great pleasure watching Masanosuke Ono and likes of Abdulrashid Sadulaev, Jordan Burroughs, David Taylor and Zavur Uguev.
watching Masanosuke Ono itself makes my day.
There might be modern tracks for lots of sports in Ashgabat actually. They organised some Asian martial arts competition some time ago and for that they built all sort of megalomaniac infrastructures (you see the picture of the gigantic horse head? That’s part of the main stadium), all in white (there’s some rule from the president that everything needs to be white in that city), and all pretty much abandoned since that time.
According to the delusional/brainwashed local people we met, “all those investments are understandable because Ashgabat will organize the Olympic very soon”.
That’s because the dictator is obsessed with huge buildings, if you see my third last photo, that is actually an indoor ferry wheel (yes, it’s a thing apparently), the largest one in the world (Guiness world record), and it looked really abandoned. Me and my wife were the only ones going on it.
Everything in that country (but especially in Ashgabat) is bizarre.
There are some government allowed routes that go to the West, but the usual one is just around the two main cities (Ashgabat and Mary) and then crossing the desert to that gas fire crater.
thats what I did, entered from the east from Bukhara (Uzbekistan) and left again to Uzbekistan but in the Khiva border.
Not sure how’s the caspian sea there, but the only time I saw it , in Azerbaijan, didn’t look very clean to swim.
Some other fast swims today include a new commonwealth record by Duncan Scott in the 400m free and a European record in the 100m IM by Marchand. Watch out for some quick swims in the 200m free and 200m IM later on.
Last stop on this TISC Central Asia tour: Turkmenistan
One of the most closed and censored lands in the world, Turkmenistan is a place with incredible things to visit, with a beautiful desert landscape, historical ruins from ancient civilisations, and the unique "Door to Hell".
But it is also a country where everything is controlled and restricted (we had no access to social networks and tons of blocked websites, can only enter with invitation letter, with a predefined tour and accompanied by a guide at all times), with giant megalomaniac buildings created in order to maintain a cult of the leader and its regime. It basically felt like what i imagine is North Korea (but without the hate for americans).
It is eccentric, it is impressive, but above all, it is bizarre.
Here is a patriotic catchy song i heard when was traveling there.
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Mähri Pirgulyýewa – Halkyň arkadagly zamanasy
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