The fire of the ХХIХ Summer Olympic Games will be lighted in the Chinese capital Beijing on August 8. Over 10,000 athletes from 205 countries worldwide including Turkmenistan will compete in 302 events in 28 sports for 16 days from August 8 to August 24.

For the first time Turkmenistan participated in the Olympic Games as an independent country after gaining independence. In 1996 our team of 7 athletes participated for the first time under the national banner in the Olympic Games in Atlanta (United States). 8 sportsmen represented our young country at the 2000 Olympic Games in Australian Sydney. Four years ago the Turkmen team of 9 athletes contested at the Athens Olympic Games in 6 sports: boxing, shooting, weightlifting, swimming, track and fields athletics and women’s judo.

To ensure the successful participation of our athletes in the Beijing Olympiad President, Chairman of the National Olympic Committee Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov issued the Resolution. Having confirmed officially Turkmenistan’s’ participation in the XXIX Summer Olympic Games the Turkmen leader approved the membership of the national team, which will uphold the honour of the Turkmen flag in the Chinese capital.

The Turkmen delegation includes 25 members: for the first time 10 athletes, who will compete in 6 sports: boxing, shooting, weightlifting, swimming, track and fields athletics and judo. A boxer Aliasker Bashirov (under-69 kg weight category), weightlifters Umurbek Bazarbaev and Tolkunbek Khudaybergenov (under-62 kg category), judokas Guvanch Nurmuhamedov (under-66 kg) and Nasiba Surkieva (under-70 kg), athletes Amanmurad Khommadov (hammer throw) and Valentina Nazarova 100 m event), Yekaterina Arabova (10 m air rifle), swimmers Andrey Molchanov (100 m freestyle) and Olga Khachatrian (50 m freestyle). The standard-bearer of the Olympic national team is 31-year-old judoka G. Nurmuhamedov, the vice champion of the 2002 Asian Games in South Korea and the bronze medal winner of the 1996 World University Games in Canada.

According to the State Committee for Tourism and Sports and the National Olympic Committee, the country has high hopes for 26-year-old Umurbek Bazarbaev, the 2004 world champion among students, the bronze medal winner of the 2008 Asian Weightlifting Championship, for whom the Beijing Olympic Games will be the third in the sports career. He ranked the 7th with the result of 287,5 kg at the Athens Olympic Games four years ago and ranked the fifth with the result of 294 kg at the World Championship in Thailand last year. The bronze winner of the 2002 Asian Games Nasiba Surkieva will participate in the Olympic Games for the third time. Aliasker Bashirov will fight on the Olympic ring for the second time after the Athens Olympic Games. For the rest of the Turkmen sportsmen it will be the first Olympic Games in their sports biographies.

The task set to the Turkmen sportsmen is to bring the prestige and authority of Turkmen sports that is actively developed in the country under the patronage of President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov up to a higher level.

Participation in the Olympci Games is an unforgettable event. Let’s wish our athletes success on the sports arenas in Beijing!