Famous uzbek sportsmen

Sports Personalities

There are a number of Uzbek sporting personalities who have acquired international fame. One of the first was the professional road racing cyclist Jamolidin Mirgarifanovich Abdujaparov (b. 1964, of Crimean Tatar origin). His reputation as a daring, unorthodox sprinter earned him the nickname ‘The Tashkent Terror’. He took part in two Olympics, first as part of the Soviet team (1988) and then as part of the Uzbek national team (1996). He also competed successfully several times in the Tour de France; in the early 1990s, he was frequently locked in contest with the renowned French cyclist Laurent Jalabert. He retired from professional racing in 1997. In October 1998, a British punk band took the name ‘Abdoujaparov’ in his honour.

One of the most remarkable athletes ever is surely Oksana Aleksandrovna Chusovitina (b. 1975, in Bukhara). Her career as a top gymnast spans over a quarter of a century. It began in 1988 when, at the age of 13, she won the USSR Junior Nationals. She represented the Soviet Union in international sporting events until its dissolution in 1991; she then competed for the Unified CIS team in 1992, and from 1993 to 2006 for Uzbekistan. In 1999, she gave birth to a son but soon resumed her training ‒ becoming one of the very few mothers in professional sport. However, her son suffered from an acute form of leukaemia (cancer of the blood) and she and her husband (an Uzbek wrestling Olympian) decided to move to Germany so that the child could receive advanced specialist treatment; she represented Germany from 2006 to 2012. Chusovitina is the only female gymnast ever to compete in seven Olympic Games ‒ under three different national flags. In 2016, aged 41 years and 2 months, she took part in the Rio de Janeiro Games, the oldest gymnast ever to compete in the Olympics. She won many medals during her career, including a Gold Medal in 1992. She also holds the record for the most individual world championships medals for a single event (nine, on the vault).

Another notable sporting figure is the tennis champion Denis Olegovich Istomin (b. 1986, Orenburg). Originally from Russia, the Istomin family moved to Uzbekistan when Denis was a baby. Coached by his mother, he became a professional in 2004. By 2006, despite his weak eyesight (he is one of the very few elite players to wear glasses on court), he was wining victories in major international tournaments and had established himself as one of the leading tennis players in the world. His opponents have included stars such as Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic.

An upcoming young sportsman is Fazliddin Hasanbaevich Gaibnazarov (born 16 June 1991). This amateur welterweight has been winning international matches since 2012. In 2016 he won a gold medal at the Rio Olympics.