NUR-SULTAN – The Kazakh National Olympic Committee will release a calendar with photos of Kazakh athletes dedicated to Nauryz holiday. The athletes’ fans can win the calendar with their autographs. The committee will unveil the details of the contest later in its social networks.
Photo credit: olympic.kz.
According to the committee, organisers wanted to show the athletes outside of sports.
“Kazakh athletes have won many medals at the largest competitions and glorify our country in the international arena. Not only awards, but also any worthy result at world tournaments is a hard, everyday work of each athlete. During competitions and training sessions, we, ordinary fans, often do not even realise that athletes might look different (outside of sports),” announced the committee.
“Despite the fact that we all have common goals – the conquest of prestigious awards, – everyone has a completely different side. This is primarily about athletes who do not open [their personality] in tournaments. This is what we are made up of except for competitions and training. During the project, we were able to show our individuality… I gladly agreed to participate in this project… I hope people will like it,” said swimmer and Olympic gold medallist Dmitriy Balandin.
Another idea of this project is to demonstrate the unity of the Olympic team. Athletes occupied in different sports were on the same film set and worked together to achieve a common result.
World Judo Championship silver medallist Yerlan Serikzhanov rode a horse and was photographed with the winner of a number of international equestrian tournaments Nurila Turisbekova.
“I think such projects are very necessary for athletes,” said Serikzhanov. “They reveal us differently and show that we are different people. In addition, it is a good way to relax a bit, to not only think about sports and other things. Thank you for the invitation, I am glad that from a large number of athletes you invited me.”
Thirty athletes took part in the photo shoots. Among them were mogulist Yuliya Galysheva, cyclist Alexey Lutsenko, boxers Vasily Levit and Nazym Kyzaybay, wrestler Aidos Sultangali, taekwondo fighter Jansel Deniz, gymnast Alina Adilkhanova, water polo players Miras Aubakirov and Azhar Alibayeva, karate fighter Guzalia Gafurova, Kazakh National Table Tennis Team’s leader Kirill Gerasimenko, synchronised swimmers Alexandra and Yekaterina Nemich, skaters Yekaterina Aidova and Stanislav Palkin and gymnast Milad Karimi.
