Watch the President of Turkmenistan Play 4 Sports in 34 Seconds

Turkmen state television released a video of the president of Turkmenistan playing four sports in 34 seconds.

By , a staff writer at Foreign Policy from 2015-2016 and was previously an editorial fellow.
Screen Shot 2015-10-12 at 6.30.42 PM
Screen Shot 2015-10-12 at 6.30.42 PM

He dribbles the basketball three times, then takes a shot. Swoosh. The president of Turkmenistan just scored his first basket of the day in a game against himself.

He dribbles the basketball three times, then takes a shot. Swoosh. The president of Turkmenistan just scored his first basket of the day in a game against himself.

So begins the 34-second montage released Monday by Turkmen state television on YouTube, which features President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow playing four different sports, all on a basketball court.

And he’s wearing the same white jumpsuit the entire time.

After showing Berdimuhamedow’s two shots at the basketball hoop, the camera cuts to an Adidas soccer ball on the floor. Berdimuhamedow picks it up and punts it across the court, but before the viewer has time to absorb the game change, the president, who was reelected with 97 percent of the vote in 2012, is bumping a volleyball across a nonexistent net.

And then he does it again, before taking a few whacks at ping-pong on a table that appears out of nowhere in the same gymnasium.

The video, named “Berdimuhamedow we sport,” fades out after he juggles and then kicks the soccer ball twice more.

Whether the video is supposed to compete with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regular appearances in Russian state media pumping iron and playing ice hockey isn’t clear. But in Turkmenistan, where there are no private television stations, the government production is at least entertaining.

Photo credit: Screengrab taken via YouTube.

Siobhán O'Grady was a staff writer at Foreign Policy from 2015-2016 and was previously an editorial fellow.

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