The Rundown: 5 Things to Know About the World's Most Obscure Sporting Event

With all of America focused on football and baseball, we didn’t want our international readers to feel left out. For this reason, we decided to diversify your sports knowledge. Today we bring you Five Things to Know About the Nomad Games. We’re not sure how these sports missed the Olympics. 

This post is not PETA approved,

The Last Night’s Game Team

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Five things to know about the Nomad Games

1. The Nomad Games began in 2014 designed to celebrate the nomadic heritage of the Central Asian nations (although it has expanded as the U.S. and several African countries have a team). Their goal is to show the world "the greatness of nomadic civilization" and to promote the revival and preservation of the historical heritage of nomadic people.  
2. 2,000 athletes from 40 different cultures came to compete for a week in host country Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyzstan dominated the games winning 79 medals, of which 16 were gold. 
3. The impressive opening ceremony featured none other than guest of honor, action hero Steven Seagal riding in on horseback donning armor of an ancient Kyrgyz warrior.
4. The Games are comprised of 16 events or “ethnosports,” which include horseback javelin-throwing, bone throwing, archery and wrestling on a horse. One of the most popular sports is kok-buru, where two teams of horsemen attempt to push a headless goat into a goal. Think polo with a dead goat. Sorry if you were eating breakfast. 
5. Most of those attending stayed in traditional yurts and like any other sporting event they attended concerts and a host of other activities including a fashion show and taking eagle selfies. 

MLB (Major League Baseball)

• Don’t poke the bear. With the playoffs approaching, division rivalries are picking up in intensity. On Monday night, Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner and Dodgers Yasiel Puig had a staring contest which ended with the benches clearing and a heated exchange. Bumgarner kept yelling "don’t look at me” at Puig. Yesterday the Dodgers continued to stir the pot wearing #dontlookatme shirts in the clubhouse and sharing their photos on Instagram. The Dodgers and Giants are fighting for a spot in the playoffs.  
• With only a few more weeks of regular season baseball, keep up with who’s in and who’s out of the postseason here.  

NCAA Football (College)

• We’ll always have Rio. Devon Allen was in Rio running for Team U.S.A., finishing fifth in the 100-meter hurdles. From Rio, he went straight to the University of Oregon Ducks to play football. Unfortunately, on Saturday he tore his ACL in the game against Nebraska. 

Hockey

• Don’t dream it’s over. The World Cup of Hockey started this weekend and the dream is already over for Team U.S.A. They were expected to make a run for the championship but things didn’t go as planned. Team U.S.A. was knocked out of the tournament last night after losing to Canada.

Overtime

• As one of the bottom four couples, Ryan Lochte was at risk of being eliminated in last night’s Dancing with the Stars. Luckily he once again lived to see another day and former Disney star Jake T. Austin was eliminated.

Sideline stat

• Seattle Seahawks violated the league's "no live contact" rule during an off-season organized team activity and they paid the price. The NFL fined the team $400,000, head coach Pete Carroll $200,000 and they will also lose their fifth round draft pick next year. The incident in violation of the rules occurred when two helmet-less players “bumped heads” and were injured. This is not Seattle's first violation under Pete Carroll.

Coaches’ corner

• The WNBA (Women’s National Basketball Association) playoffs start today and we’ll see a new postseason format.  In a different format than most professional sports, the top eight teams by winning percentage, regardless of conference, make the playoffs. Playoffs start with two single elimination games. Minnesota Lynx and Los Angeles Sparks are the top teams coming into the postseason. Here’s the full schedule.