04/02/2012 World Olympic Dreams

I'm on a journey across Mongolia. It's an adventure through a country

with sport in its DNA. From epic horse races across vast a

wilderness, to more modern sporting heroes with Olympic ambition.

been waiting for an Olympic gold for over four decades. This is a

country that's changing beyond recognition. It's still a land of

beguiling tradition but it's also a country with more modern surprises.

He bought a purse, shoes. I'll discover how rapid growth and

urbanisation have brought rewards here but also big challenges. And

I'll see how sport is helping Mongolia find its place in the

Yes, they couldn't have done it It's early morning in midsummer

Mongolia. From across the plains that surround the industrial city

of Erdenet competitors gather. They've come to take part in an

ancient sports festival, called the Naadam. It's just after 7.30am,

first day of the Naadam. First event to kick things off is this

stallion race. All of the horses are ridden by children, the

youngest of whom is just seven- The event is an incredible test of

endurance by anyone's standards. Well before the race gets going,

all the horses, riders and an army of supporting four-wheel drives

travels out onto the Steppe, to the So the kids have been riding for an

hour and a half now and they haven't actually got to the start

line yet, which is 25 km away from the base camp. Once they get there

they'll turn round and race back. There'll be over 60 riders in this

race alone. It's just one of several taking place over the two

days of the festival. Naadam isn't just about horse racing but these

epic contests are by far the biggest part of the festival. At

times the atmosphere among the riders on the way to the start

seems so relaxed it's easy to With breathtaking speed - the race

It's a spectacular combination of The pace is incredible - over 25

kilometres. We drive at heart- stopping speed just to keep up.

Never mind what it must be like on Riders are sometimes injured in

these races, though thankfully today the chasing ambulance isn't

Whenever we ride up alongside kids you can hear them crying, singing,

encouraging the horses along. There's no fear, there's no worry

about falling off. They're just At the finish-line huge crowds

Now the horse races here at Naadam aren't just any old race. These are

public holidays so thousands of people will turn out at the finish

line will turn up to see the end of a big race. And what's interesting

is it's people all across Mongolian society - farmers all the way up to

the VIPs over there. Nearly four hours after first setting off, and

after over an hour of racing, the It's the end of just one of many

races that will take place during The festival isn't just about

horses and riders though. Back in Erdenet, Mongolia's third largest

city, the other two sports that make up Naadam are also getting

While the archery takes place in the grounds around the stadium,

it's fair to say most eyes are focused on the battles taking place

For the entire two days of the event, the best wrestlers in the

region will fight it out until one Bouts are not timed. They continue

indefinitely, until one of the competitors touches the ground with

Watching with me in the stands is my guide in Mongolia, Jargal.

Jargal, there's a spiritual aspect to sport here in Mongolia as well,

isn't there? Yes, there is. In fact we have a word - hemur - which is,

I don't think there's an English translation for it, it stands for

energy and luck together combined. We Mongolians believe horses,

wrestlers and wolves have that special spirit. Now you can

actually pick up a bit of god luck, can't you? Well, it's believed that

if you touch the sweat of the winning wrestler or winning horse

at the races you can get some of it, So if I go up to the winner of the

wrestling competition, a big muscly sweaty man and touch him there's

not going to be a problem. No, it only counts if he's winner! So

maybe you'll see after the wrestling is finished you may see

some people try to touch him to get some of that hemur. OK, that's

something to look forward to. Naadam is the constant in Mongolian

life. For centuries it's the one thing that Mongolia, as a whole

nation, stops and celebrates every It is the event which gives this

But it's no longer the only show in town. Being here at Naadam has very

vividly brought home to me exactly how central sport is to Mongolian

culture. Nomads have been competing in the so-called Manly Games for

over 800 years, even pre-dating the legendary Genghis Khan. But success

in the modern Olympics has bred a new set of heroes, including ccx. -

- Badar Urgan. His Olympic gold medal for boxing in Beijing was one

of two the country earned after 44 years of taking part. The Games in

August 2008 - and this fight in particular - ended Mongolia's long

decades in the sporting wilderness. I don't think I've seen anybody in

this entire competition put in as clear and as clearly defined body

But when Badar Urgan, a young 23- year-old boxer from Ulaan Baatar.

Won an Olympic gold medal not just by a whisker but convincingly,

everything changed. In fact, altogether Mongolia won two golds

and two silvers in Beijing. In terms of medals per capita it meant

this remote and landlocked country was one of the most successful

nations at the 2008 Games. For Mongolians this wasn't just a

sporting turning point but a national one. Their country had

arrived on the international stage. But even Olympic athletes get some

time off for the Naadam. Back in Erdenet, Badar Urgan meets his fans

in a short break from training. He explains his significance of the

victory in Beijing. TRANSLATION: We had been waiting

for the Olympic gold for 44 years. Among Mongolians, after the

Olympics there was a rise in interest generally in sport. People

started to realise it is possible to win a gold in the Olympic Games.

It only depends on you. Since then, Mongolia has enjoyed success in

other competitions, like the Asian and world championships.

Olympic gold in Beijing put Mongolia on the sporting map. But

at the heart of the pride he has brought to his country, there's a

very personal victory, too. For him, sport, and especially boxing, which

is relatively new here in Mongolia, was a route out of poverty and

trouble. I hear that you were a bit of a troublemaker when you were

naked. Is that true? TRANSLATION: I would say 150 %

naughty as a child. I was getting into trouble in the streets in

Ulaan Batar. Always getting into fights. It was my uncle who said to

me, you should be a boxer and do it somewhere where it is permitted.

Now, with the credibility that comes with being an Olympic

champion, he is trying to help some of the kids growing up in the same

circumstances as he did. As well as helping coaching, he is taking a

message about discipline and hard work directly to the next

generation. TRANSLATION: I have been travelling

through Mongolia doing lectures about the importance of success and

trying to follow your dreams. Most of the kids I speak to are from the

same sort of district where I grew up. I tried to inspire them and

tell them that they should view every day aspects of life, like

gathering wood and fetching water, as part of their training to become

Boxing and an Olympic gold medal have transformed Badar Urgan's life.

But the wider effects of success stretched out across this vast land.

Two hours up the road from Erdenet is a remote hideaway where this

country is hoping it can nurture its next Olympic heroes. We're now

in one of two Mongolia's mini Olympic villages. This is where

their athletes come through for their training. Not just for the

Olympics but for international championships all over the world.

This is the heart of it, where they take their meals in the summer. And

beyond that you can see some of the hills. We are sitting in a rather

deep valley. That is where they do quite a lot of their fitness

training. I don't know if you can catch just over my shoulder, a

swing and play area for the athletes to relax in. Inside the

main training gym there isn't much relaxing going on. Today's session

is wrestling, but this camp has a constant stream of athletes from a

wide variety of sports hoping to follow in the Badar Urgan's

footsteps. One of the cultures tells me greater spoken -- sporting

as a sex is now one of Mongolia's top priorities. By succeeding in

the Olympic Games we are demonstrating the success of

Mongolia in our development, culture and economics. Although the

Olympics take place during peacetime, the games are a bit like

war. It's all about competing against other countries. Or

Mongolia, we are now giving high And has Badar Urgan's success had a

particular effect? TRANSLATION: Particularly in the Olympic final,

he beat a very strong boxer with a very large margin. Both of our

champions won their medals convincingly. There was a special

effect on young people. They got a huge belief that, in becoming an

athlete, you can promote Mongolia and be proud to be Mongolian.

An increasing sense of national pride is not the only thing

changing this country. We have hit the wrote and we're heading to

Ulaan Batar, Mongolia's capital city, where Badar Urgan grew up. It

is a similar journey to the one that thousands of people are making

as they migrate from the countryside, fundamentally changing

this country's character. Mongolia is the most sparsely populated

country in the world with just under three million people in an

area six times the size of the UK. Following a series of hard winters

and a perceived rise in economic opportunity in the cities, nomads

are no longer migrating around the countryside but out of it

altogether. Mongolia is approaching at demographic turning-point

unthinkable just a few years ago. Soon more people will lead in the

capital than here in the countryside. -- will live. We

stopped to take a rest with some of the nomads who, so far, remain here.

This is the traditional Mongolian tea. How do you make it? Boil water,

add green tea, add milk, a little salt. How do you like it? It is

actually very nice. What is interesting is this kind of

hospitality, going to someone's house, then offering you tea and

something to eat, is central to Mongolian culture, isn't it? It is

very common. This is our tradition. You can basically visit any family

without warning them. You just come to their home and say, hold your

dog. That is like, hello, someone is here. And they will say, come in,

you are expected. They will offer food, tea. If you take your hat off

and pitted on the ground that means, please, I would like to stay

overnight here. -- and put it. tradition grew up because people

were living long distances away from each other and there was a

hope that there would be reciprocity of this kind of

kindness? Absolutely right. People live far from each other so, when

guests arrive, it is always really respect the guest. They will offer

you tea, some food, and you have a chat about work. And as Mongolia

are denies is, as more people move into cities and settled communities,

have you seen these traditions surviving or are they dying out?

would say we still have this tradition. You cannot really knock

any door in an apartment building. It would not be the same. But you

would be offered tea at least. For these nomads, life in

Mongolia's wide-open spaces continues for now. But their

numbers are dwindling all the time. The long road through the steppe

finally leads us here to the Mongolian capital, Ulaan Batar. In

the last five or ten years, UB, as the Mongolians call it, has changed

almost beyond recognition. Well from the rapidly expanding mining

sector is fuelling an economic and population boom. But the

traditional does it still have a place in the New Mongolia. As we

arrive in the city centre, 999 children are gathering to perform

in a traditional horsehair violin orchestra to celebrate the holidays.

It is incredible. As you walk around, there is building work

everywhere. But what strikes you is this real sense of pride in history.

It is almost as though it is a sort of reaction against the rush

towards the modern world. Everyone I talked to says, this is what we

want to hang on to. We want to hang on to our past and celebrate what

we were before. But in a context of modernisation, moving forward,

joining the modern, international world. These are the children of

democratic Mongolia, all of them born after the overthrow of

communism in 1990. As their current leadership would have it, theirs is

an independent Mongolia, emerging from the shadows of its giant

neighbours, China and Russia. It is a country that Mongolia's founder,

Genghis Khan, would be proud of. It is the money flowing in from the

mining profits that is bankrolling change.

Just on the edge of the square is the epitome of the new Ulaan Batar,

a complex of designer shops serving Mongolia's rich. As Jargal showed

me around, I wanted to know more about this country's new label-

codgers class. There are about 12 or so designer shops. Who is

spending the money? Is it indigenous Mongolians or tourists?

I would say Mongolians. The majority are Mongolians. Is it

import -- is it important to have a Burberry raincoat? A Louis Vuitton

bag is a must, I guess. A lot of people travel abroad and, before,

Mongolians travelled abroad for shopping, now, they can do it in

Mongolia. The shops are welcoming more

customers through their doors, including an unlikely one that we

found outside. Yes, he is a monk. He bought a purse, shoes. Also a

coat from there. Where will you wear your new clothes? In everyday

life. What does he think of the prices? Quality things cost.

Mongolia's boom clearly has plenty of winners, but the expansion of

the capital is not the uncomplicated success story it

might appear. 60% of Ulaan Batar's residents live here in the so-

called Ger districts. The modern authority of them are nomads who

have left the wilderness behind -- the majority of them. If you see

the Gers behind me, this is what people bring with them from the

countryside. They will ask someone if they can come out in their back

garden and, as they become established, the start to claim a

bit of land and fence it off. As they become wealthier the start to

build brick houses for themselves, and so it goes on. The interesting

thing is that there is no planning permission for any of this, it is

all illegal. So, in theory, they could be moved on at any time.

Looking around, it is clear that no-one here has any intention of

going anywhere. While it is the promise of opportunity that

attracted residents here, the reality is different. More than

half live below the poverty line and the majority do not have access

to sanitation and running Walker -- water. To find out more I met Tuya,

a single mother who moved to the city to try to improve life for her

kids. Why did you move from the countryside? TRANSLATION: In the

countryside, I had a few livestock. I had an income. When my youngest

daughter got serious Lear-like could not find treatment so I had

to move to the city to get better health care for her, and for better

education, too. If it had not been for that, I could have stayed there

quite happily. Tuya's family is caught between two worlds - 1 in

the countryside, lacking opportunity, and one in the city,

lacking community. TRANSLATION: Everything in the city is about

money. If you do not have enough money or a job it is very hard here.

I think my children will have a better future, and they can help me

have a better life. What strikes me most about Tuya's story is very

simple. It is the story of thousands of people who have moved

from the countryside into the Ger district. Life is undoubtedly tough.

There is no running water, work is hard to find, and what she is

saying is that it is actually very lonely. But she wants what

everybody else here once - a better future for her children. --

everybody else here wants. She is determined to make something of

this situation for herself and her kids.

The Ger districts are also where Mongolia's Olympic Hero Badar Urgan

grew up. Boxing was his passport to a better life, but he is not the

only one for whom sport could be a way out. Munkbat Chimeddorj is

pinning his hopes on the power of football. He is a coach and mentor

to a group of kids living in the Ger district. His players are

recent arrivals from the countryside. He set up the club so

they would have something to strive for. TRANSLATION: If they were not

playing football, I believe they would probably be in the streets,

hanging out with the wrong kind of people. This is a crucial stage in

their lives. It is hard to control them. They are used to being out,

running around. On the streets of the city, there are many more

dangers - traffic and drunk people. Like any good coach, it is the

potential, not the problems, that Munkbat Chimeddorj sees in his

players. TRANSLATION: This is my real goal - that these kids can

have a better life. Some people wrongly believe that these kids are

trouble and that they behave badly. But I find them to be kind, easier

to deal with, in a way. When it comes to sport, they are stronger,

they have more courage. Back on the football pitch, that is not

something I think Munkbat Chimeddorj will be saying about me

any time soon! They just couldn't have done it without me, obviously!

Change is something this generation of Mongolians no better than most.

The country around them is transforming fast. Munkbat

Chimeddorj is hoping that the fulfilment they get from sport will

help these kids to find their place in the New Mongolia.

My journey across Mongolia has revealed a fascinating country

rapidly growing and quickly changing. Naadam is a festival like

no other on earth, virtually unchanged for eight centuries, save

for the presence of four-wheel drives. It is a cultural and

sporting bedrock in a land where tradition and history still matter.

But the Mongolia I found is also embracing change, galvanised by

success in the Olympics. This country is opening up economically

and growing in confidence politically. The dividends of

growth are not spread evenly. Mongolia faces plenty of problems,

but if character has anything to do with it, from what I have seen,

Mongolians have what it takes to overcome these obstacles. On the

edge of Ulaan Batar is the Zaisan memorial. Built to commemorate

their help Mongolia gave Russia in World War Two, it is a great

vantage point to watch as the weather over the city shows its

dramatic side. It is a final chance to ponder the country I have

discovered on my journey here. In many senses, modern Mongolia has

come of age. 21 years of democracy and this country is confidently on

the move - be it weather, sport or politics. This country is going