Could you memorize a deck of cards? That means remembering the order of all 52 cards! Well, two sisters from Mongolia are very good at that!
Munkhshur Narmandakh needed only 16 seconds to memorize a deck of cards. Her sister Enkhshur did it in less than 19 seconds. They were two of the fastest people in the 30th World Memory Championships!
The two sisters faced off with 364 other people in the global memory contest. Each one had to in 10 different events. Besides memorizing cards, they had to remember the order of names, faces, dates, numbers, and words. Munkhshur Narmandakh won the event. And her sister came in fifth place!
Munkhshur Narmandakh has won before. She became the first woman to win the World Memory Championship in 2017. “My success is not only my success,” she said at the time. “This success is for both of us,” she explained, “because my twin sister always was by my side.” In 2022, at age 22, Munkhshur became a champion for the second time.
“We trained for this for a very short time,” Munkhshur told News-O-Matic. She explained that the sisters’ focus was “to study and do well” in college. “In a short time, we wanted to challenge ourselves to see if we can achieve the results we want,” she added.
The twins achieved historic success. One contest in the World Memory Championships is to memorize as many cards in a row as possible. Munkhshur Narmandakh came in first place with 2,064 cards. Her sister memorized the order of 1,612 cards. That was good enough for fifth place.
Munkhshur said this experience taught a lesson. “Whether it is long-term training or short-term training, as long as you work hard, believe in yourself, and work smart, you can achieve your desired goals,” said Munkhshur. “All in all, we are very satisfied with our results,” she added. “It has given us a lot of .”
The twins will keep competing in the World Memory Championships. And Munkhshur said they make each other better. “I can’t improve if she’s not around me,” she said. Munkhshur believes her sister will win a title too. “I know how powerful she is,” said Munkhshur. “In training, she always wins.”
“Next time, I want my twin sister to be a world champion.”
Updated March 15, 2022, 5:02 P.M. (ET)
By Russell Kahn (Russ)
