A motoball player kicks the ball over a field in Neryungri. Combining cycling, soccer, and polo, motoball features two teams of five players trying to push a 16-inch (40-centimeter) ball through the other's goal. Originating in France in the late 1920s, the sport caught on during the 1960s in the Soviet Union.

(Text adapted from and photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Siberia: In from the Cold," March 1990, National Geographic magazine)