Innovative wardrobe design yanked Mongolia from obscurity at the Turin Winter Games but bullets and black belts should save the day in Beijing next August as a huge "home" crowd hungers for its first taste of gold.
Tsagaanbaatar Haskhbaatar (in white) celebrates with a somersault after winning the Men's Judo 66kg final during the 2006 Doha Asian Games on December 4. [Agencies] |
"Yes, we are expecting our first Olympic gold medal at Beijing 2008," Mongolian Olympic Committee spokesman Tsogtoo Naranjargan told China Daily on Tuesday.
"Many Mongolian fans are going to be there, so we have to go for it."
Only a 30-hour train journey separates Beijing and Ulan Bator - two hours by plane - yet the two capitals remain decades apart in terms of culture, economic prosperity and sporting prowess.
Mongolia used creativity to compensate for these setbacks at last year's Turin Games, where it fielded a show-stealing delegation of brightly colored athletes wearing fur trapper's hats at the opening ceremony, but it won't rely on smoke and mirrors next summer.
Home to some of the world's best judoka and women shooters, the country of three million is readying to add to its cache of 15 Olympic medals rather than disappoint local fans.
Pistol specialist Gundegmaa Otryad has history in her sights and is a top pick despite the former world No 1 missing the target in Athens.
"Otryad certainly has a shot at gold," said Naranjargan. Her medal would be Mongolia's second in the sport after another woman, Dorzhsuren Munkhbayer, finished third at Barcelona 1992, eight year's after women's shooting joined the Olympics.
Mongolia's track record - it went medal-less in Turin, got one bronze at the 2004 Athens Summer Games, and took nothing from Sydney 2000 - hardly makes it a bookkeeper's favorite to win anything in Beijing, but the planets may be aligning in its favor.
Dj vu
Mongolia's finest hour at the Games occurred in Russia, another neighboring Olympic host, when it bagged two silver and two bronze medals, including one each in judo, at Moscow 1980.
Athens was also a case of dj vu, with judoka Khashbaatar Tsagaanbaatar finishing third in the lightweight (60kg) class to hand Mongolia 71st place in the overall medal rankings. Dorjpalam Narmandakh did exactly the same eight years earlier at Atlanta 1996.
Beijing will be even better, judo officials claim.
"One of our guys will hopefully get a gold," said Bukhbak Mashbat, secretary general of the Mongolian Judo Federation.
"The (judoka's) condition is improving. The only problem is defense. We need to work more on our defensive tactics."
With something akin to a home advantage in Beijing, little need to acclimatize, unprecedented levels of government funding and a planned four-to-eight-week training camp in Europe next year, Mashbat fancies their chances.
"The government has increased its investment in our top-tier Olympic sports two -or three- fold," he said. "Their position is, if all these other countries are investing heavily in the Games, why shouldn't we?"
Second chances
At the world team judo championships in Beijing a few weeks ago, Mongolia's women edged Japan to finish third behind Cuba and overall winners China.
"They beat France, last year's winners at the team event. They also beat the Algerians, the best women's team in Africa, who have a very good style of fighting, so we're really happy with 3rd place," said Mashbat.
Meanwhile, Athens bronze medalist Tsagaanbaatar came fifth at the men's world championships in Rio de Janeiro this September and remains Mongolia's No 1 in the 60kg class.
Teammate Nyamkhuu Damdinsuren failed to threaten in Athens but has since tasted gold at the Doha Asian Games, while fresh blood comes in the form of this year's young Asian Championship silver medalist Tuvshinbayar Naidan (-100kg), who also came fifth at the 2007 worlds.
More ammunition comes on the women's side from recent Bangkok Universiade winner Bundnaa Munhkbaatar (-52kg) and Erdenet-Od Khashbat (-57kg), a bronze medalist at the previous world championships who won the Vienna leg of this year's Super World Cup.
Cashing in
The increased support from the government means more foreign exposure for athletes in the four sports that account for all of Mongolia's Olympic medals: wrestling (8), shooting (1), judo (4) and boxing (2).
But an Olympic gold would build greater credibility for the winning sport at home, help fledglingefforts to upgrade the domestic sports infrastructure and ultimately leave behind a lasting legacy.
Current programs will also no doubt pay dividends.
Mongolia's U-21 judo squad is currently training in Hohhot city in Inner Mongolia, one of a raft of collaborations with China to improve both sides' Olympic prospects, while Mashbat is canvassing Mongolian schools and clubs, and even offering military scholarships to promote judo on a national level.
Yet economic pitfalls still hamper the country's efforts to develop as a sporting power and are creating something of an Olympic 'brain drain,' said Mashbat.
"We used to be very good in the heavyweight (judo) category but now it's just dying because all the good guys are being lured away by (more lucrative) alternatives like sumo and 'bokh' (traditional Mongolian wrestling)."
The chief victims of this are Olympic wrestling, which has not yielded a medal at the Games since 1992, and judo. Sumo Grand Champion Asashoryu is the highest-profile example of a former child judoka who decided to change camps.
