“Sports in Kazakhstan” Sports draws us for many reasons. It keeps us healthy and fit, teaches responsibility, givesus competition, excitement, creates communities… The list is endless! Kazakhstan is no exception for a sports community, so in this blog I’d like to share with my foreign friends about Kazakhs sports culture.
I think every Kazakh citizen would agree that the most popular sport in our country is soccer (we call it football though). I assume, the other reason, besides it’s fun, is that soccer requires lesser equipment than any other sports.
Anyways, Kazakhstan has 14 inner soccer teams which compete for the UEFA Champions League. It is held every year between the spring-fall season. Nowadays, the winning team is Karaganda’s FC Shakhter Karagandy. Besides, Kazakhstan has national soccer team, which represents our country on international level. In 2002, Kazakhstan was adopted in the UEFA as an European country participant (West Kazakhstan (Atyrau, Aktobe and part of Mangistau regions) belong to Europe geographically). At the moment, Kazakhstan is participating in the qualifying tournament for UEFA Champions League 2014. Our country is in the same group with Germany, Sweden, Ireland, Austria and Faroe Islands.
Boxing is the second most popular sport in Kazakhstan. Our Boxing Federation was formed in 1959 and has achieved a lot since then. Here are the achievements from the Olympic Games:
2000 – At the Sydney Olympics, Kazakhstan won 2 gold and 2 silver
2004 – At the Athens Olympics, Bakhtiar Artaev became an Olympic champion in welterweight and the second in the history of Kazakhstan’s boxing after Vasily Jirov to be awarded the most prestigious trophy in boxing; the Val Barker Cup.
2008- At the Olympics in Beijing, Bakhit Sarsekbayev became the Olympic champion in welterweight, and Erkebulan Shynaliev won a bronze medal in light heavyweight.
2012 – At the XXX Summer Olympic Games in London Serik Sapiev won the welterweight gold medal and became the third Kazakh boxer awarded “Val Barker Cup”. Adilbek Niyazymbetov won a silver award in light heavyweight, and Ivan Dychko bronze in super heavyweight. Held on for the first time in the history of the Olympic Games, in women’s boxing tournament Marina Volnova won the bronze medal in middleweight.
Nowadays, the boxing team “Astana Arlans” is on top in the World Series of Boxing. They won the III World Series of 2013 Boxing season.
The third favorite sport in Kazakhstan is hockey. Team “Torpedo” from Ust-Kamenogorsk (East Kazakhstan) is the best hockey team in the country. Evgeny Paladyev from “Torpedo” is a three-time world champion, who played seven years for the Moscow “Spartak” team. The Kazakhstan national hockey team (composed of “Torpedo” players), shared 5-8 places with Team USA, Sweden and Belarus at the 1998 Olympics in Nagano. In 2002 Kazakhstan’s Maxim Kuznetsov of the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings won the Stanley Cup. Current goalie for the Carolina Hurricanes Anton Khudobin is from Kazakhstan.
The fourth most liked sport is cycling. The main “engine” of popularity for cycling in Kazakhstan are the victories of the outstanding Kazakh rider Alexander Vinokourov in prestigious Pro Tour races and, of course, his gold medal at the 2012 Olympics in London. Also, Alexey Lutsenko’s recent victory in the World Cup 2012 inspires Kazakh people to be involved in cycling.
In 2006, Pro Team Astana was created by A.Vinokurov and D.Akhmetov, the former prime minister of Kazakhstan. The captain of Pro Team Astana is Vincenzo Nibali ( nicknamed “Shark”). He’s an Italian professional road bicycle racer who won the 2013 Giro d’Italia. At the moment, Pro Astana Team, lead by Vincenzo, is participating in La Vuelta De Espana 2013, which started on August 24th and suppose to finish on September 15th. Astana team has won the team race so far, which was the first stage of the competition. Nibali is considered a highly expected candidate for a win, and the whole country is excited to know about the final results of the race!
Sport in water!
Outdoor sport!
Indoor sport!
Team sport!
Individual sport!
Sport eguipment !
Sport with a ball!
Extreme sport!
Sports where you row!
Sport on ice!
