Olympic games and Kazakhstan
July 17 at 11:35 am
Taufik KARIMOV, a political analyst
On the eve of the main sporting event of the quadrennial year-the London Olympics-let's remember the achievements of Kazakhstani athletes at the Olympic games of our time.
Participation of Kazakhstani athletes in the Olympic games of our time should be divided into two parts – first as part of the USSR national team, and then, after independence, as part of the national team under its national flag.
However, first I want to warn readers – here you will see some discrepancies with the generally accepted data. For example, it is believed that for the first time Kazakhstan took part in the Olympics in 1956, in my opinion – in 1952 (then, by the way, the first medal was won, and not in 1960, as it is believed).
The first Olympic champion-Kazakh in official sources is called the wrestler Zhaksylyk USHKEMPIROV (1980), although in fact this is Alzhan ZHARMUKHAMEDOV (1972). Without detracting from the merits of our outstanding athlete, we just note that Ushkempirov is indeed the first Kazakh Olympic champion who represented Kazakhstan directly. And Kazakh Zharmukhamedov, who became the champion of the Munich Olympics in the Soviet basketball team, then lived in Moscow and played for CSKA. Then we all lived in a single state called the USSR, and it often happened that the best athletes, and not only from Kazakhstan, played for other Union republics. However, in order
