Sport in Kazakhstan.
People all over the world are fond of sports and games. Sport makes people healthy, keeps them fit, more organized and better disciplined. It unites people of different classes and nationalities.
Many people do sports on their personal initiative. They go in for skiing, skating, table tennis, swimming volleyball, football, body building. All necessary facilities are provided for them: stadiums, sport grounds, swimmingа pools, skating rinks, skiing stations, football fields.
Sport is paid much attention to in our educational establishments. Gymnastics is a part of children's activity in the kindergartens. Physical Culture is а compulsory subject at schools and colleges.
Professional sport is also paid much attention to in our republic. There are different sporting societies, clubs and complexes. The most famous of them is the sports palace named after Baluan Sholak.
They are used for international and world competitions. In the last years Kazakhstan sport has reached good results in the world sports movement and in the Olympic Games as well. Independent Kazakhstan became а member of the World Olympic Committee in 1994. Since that time Kazakhstan sportsmen have been demonstrating definite results at different international competitions. Our learn tool the eleventh place in command test among the 100 teams in the world Olympic Winter Games in Nagano. We took the 26th place (among the 187 teams') in Atlanta. Our boxers were successful, they took the second place. The first Republic Competitions of the national sport Games were held in August,1998, declared the Year of national Unity and National History by the President of the RK Nursultan Nazarbayev. The participants from all parts of КKazakhstan had an opportunity to demonstrate their strength, beauty, boldness and skills. Major victories have been won by skiers' track-and-fields sportswomen, boxers, wrestlers and hockey-рlауеrs.
V.Smirnovs, В.Konakbaev, В.Battarkhanov, Е.Ibraimov, А.Miroshnichenko - - these are prominent names of our sport. They won fame for themselves and for our republic. Olga Shishigina, for example, won gold medal at the Olympics in Sydney in 2000.
Practically all kinds of sports are popular in our Republic.