Maasai Warriors Go for the Gold

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

For generations, Maasai warriors in Kenya proved their manhood by killing a lion, but a campaign led by Olympic champion David Rudisha is working to swap spearing for sport.

As the numbers of big cats rapidly decline due to poaching and humans’ increasing encroachment on their territory, a special Maasai Olympics organized by conservationists aims to provide an alternative test of the warriors’ strength.

Rudisha, the 800-meter gold medalist and world record-holder — and himself a Maasai — is patron of the games.

In a Kenyan twist on classic athletics events, the warriors threw spears instead of javelins.

Daubed in red paint, dressed in colorful Maasai robes and draped in beaded necklaces, warriors competed in the plains beneath the snow-capped peak of Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain. They also hurled the Maasai’s heavy wooden fighting club instead of the discus, with the winner determined by the accuracy of the throw.

Running races included 200-meter, 800-meter and 5,000-meter distances for men; for women, there were 100-meter and 1,500-meter races. Athletes also took part in a Maasai high jump, measured by the traditional standing jump straight into the air, not over a crossbar.

The games offered warriors a chance to compete using traditional skills used in the hunt, but tested instead in a sports competition against each other.

Organizers said the games give the Maasai “an avenue to demonstrate their physical prowess through a sporting event rather than a traditional hunt,” as well as raising awareness about the threats lions are facing.“Lions are in trouble,” said Fiesta Warinwa of the African Wildlife Foundation, one of sponsors of the games, adding that fewer than 2,000 lions remain in Kenya.