Team Kazakhstan gears up for the Olympics
ASTANA. July 15. KAZINFORM Two weeks ahead of the London 2012 Olympic Games, Kazakhstan's 115-strong team is preparing to compete in 24 sports, with two cycling athletes yet to be selected.
On July 4, Kazakhstan's President, Nursultan Nazarbayev, addressed the team's athletes and coaches: "Our country has always had great results in sports. Last year alone our athletes won 15 medals, including 32 gold medals at the Asian Winter Games. Your achievements and daily exercise are a powerful testimony to sports and a healthy lifestyle." He highlighted how athletes can promote Kazakhstan as a country before handing over the national flag to flag-bearer and Greco-Roman wrestling champion Nurmakhan Tynaliyev. Speaking on behalf of the team, Tynaliyev promised they would do their best to live up to the president's confidence and the confidence of the entire country.
Chair of Kazakhstan's Sports Agency Talgat Yermegiyaev said on July 5 that Kazakhstan's national team is aiming to win at least 13 medals, including at least three gold medals. Kazakhstan's hopes are pinned on weightlifting champions Ilya Ilyin, Maya Maneza, Svetlana Podobedova and Zulfiya Chinshanlo, as well as on wrestling champions Nurmakhan Tynaliyev and Almat Kebesbayev, judo champions Sergey Lim and Rinat Ibragimov, tennis champions Galina Voskoboeva, Yaroslava Shvedova and Mikhail Kukushkin, and boxers Serik Sapiyev, Daniyar Elieusinov, and Adilbek Niyazymbetov.
The first members of Kazakhstan's Olympic team will fly to London July 18. The rest will follow according to the competition schedule. A total of about 180 people will travel to London, of which about half are support staff, the kazakh MFA's press service said.
Yermegiyaev explained that the team would bring its own food to London. "Some athletes' stomachs do not easily adjust to different food so we'll take our own food to the Olympics," he said.
Olympic medalists can expect cash prizes ranging from $250,000 for 1st place to $5,000 for 6th place.
At the last Olympics in Beijing, Kazakhstan competed in 23 sports, qualifying among others for fencing, water polo, and women's boxing, which is newly included in the Olympics programme.
The XXX Summer Olympic Games will be held in London from July 27 to August 12. Participants will compete for a total of 302 medals in 39 sports.