Sports & Culture – Georgia’s Forte

Op-ed

OMG, the end of the year and nothing terribly fascinating is popping up in the mind's eye to dedicate the final stroke of the pen to. On the eve of the next 365 days of upcoming new fits and starts, I chose to look beyond the continual bickering and backbiting in the field of politics, all those notorious drawbacks in economics and extravagant ideological outbursts made in a miserable attempt to copycat the as-if-more-sophisticated part of the world. And the choice fell on where Georgia might really make a resplendent flaunt of its genuine spirit and power: culture, and within that realm, sports! To the delight of every patriot of this country and its true friends, a brief recollection of previous Georgian achievements in culture and sports can’t hurt.

Several national phenomena were in previous years identified and officially declared by UNESCO as world-level non-material heritage, among them three types of the Georgian alphabet, Georgian polyphonic singing, Georgian Qvevri wine and Georgian wrestling. This is a lot for a petite and not awfully significant nation like Georgia, but the full-stop is not at all carved there. Culture and sport is Georgia’s forte, which is strongly emphasized in the entire activity of GIORGI – the Georgian Union for Support of World Achievements and Travels, the firmly-established (but chronically suffering from pecuniary limitations) club of volunteers involved in the world record movement. The organization is headed by the amazingly perseverant, knowledgeable, active and enthusiastic octogenarian Gvanji Mania and his dedicated associate and fellow-fighter Ketevan Mgaloblishvili – the managing organizer of folk sports and marathons, chief of staff of the Georgian Geographic Society. I am more than certain that people like them will build the nation sooner than those who we commonly think do the job. Here is what they have recently done: in close cooperation with the Georgian Geographic Society and the Phasisi National Academy of Science, GIORGI has prepared a new project to propose to UNESCO in three Georgian national styles of swimming to be someday considered as new Olympic sports events: a) Zezela – the standing swimming with hands above the water level, which is a unique military-rescue as well as recreational kind of swimming; b) the Mkhedruli-Kolkhuri type of swimming which is executed with tethered hands and feet and is used for overcoming the perpetual innate human fright syndrome in and ominous expectation of danger; c) Menchurua – underwater wrestling, which is different from every other type of wrestling, like Georgian, Greco-Roman, Free-Style, Sambo and others, takes place in natural crystal clear water or in a transparent swimming pool like an aquarium, and has a realistic chance of becoming an Olympic sports event.

The proposal, which is still in the making, was preceded by numerous records, so there is a solid ground to the desire to familiarize the world with Georgian martial arts in swimming. On September 2, 2018 on the Adjaran coast near Batumi, the 58-year sea-walker Beglar Elbakidze established his third record in Zezela swimming, with both hands raised out of water, having covered with only legs and feet 14 Olympic distances equal to 21 kilometers. Henry Kuprashvili, a man of a solid age, is another Georgian who has revived the Mkhedruli Kolkhuri style of swimming, having conquered the straits of the world and acquired many followers in his native Georgia as well as throughout the entire world, one of them being his best trainee Anna Lominadze, who amazed witnesses no less than her famous coach.

The historical Menchurua, or water wrestling a.k.a. ‘combat dunking,’ not only maintains its popularity in riverside and littoral villages of Georgia but has its adherents and champions too. To get the proposal to a solid international organization like UNESCO and later to the International Olympic Committee is no easy task. On top of that, nothing happens without financial efforts. I think I have mentioned before that volunteerism has not yet taken deep roots in Georgia, but it might: aren’t we telling the world that we are part of Europe with a western approach to things like fundraising and making good things happen on this soil?

Meanwhile, further research is to be done, brochures and other relevant materials have to be issued, texts have to be prepared and translations done, saying nothing about the wages that need to be doled out. I wish those heroes of our time to be patient and not to let their love for motherland go. I presume one of their New Year’s resolutions is something compatible with their ultimate goal – to get the word out about Georgia’s sports and culture across.

By Nugzar B. Ruhadze

Henry Kuprashvili, a Georgian who has revived the Mkhedruli Kolkhuri style of swimming, having conquered the straits of the world. Source: Udrekeli