Kyrgyz Sports and Athletes in the Soviet Period

Kyrgyz people have long been close to sports: their nomadic lifestyle was associated with the necessity to constantly defend their land from enemies, to fight against natural elements for survival, and to overcome various difficulties. These circumstances required agility, skill, and endurance. Many traditional games of the Kyrgyz were competitive in nature and trained young men to become resilient fighters, the future defenders of the Motherland. However, the widespread development of physical culture and sports aimed at comprehensive physical training of the population, strengthening and hardening the body, and improving human physical abilities gained traction during the Soviet era.

The Kyrgyz land has given many famous names to sports. In the early years of Soviet power, Kaba Uulu Kozhomkul, a Kyrgyz strongman and renowned wrestler, competed against world-class heroes and gained recognition. He stood 2 meters 36 centimeters tall and weighed 164 kilograms, easily lifting a cow or a horse onto his shoulders. To this day, there are enormous boulders weighing around a ton in the Suusamyr Valley that Kozhomkul lifted, astonishing everyone.

Year by year, the physical culture movement and sports gained strength: sports clubs and halls were opened, and sports competitions were held. Kyrgyzstanis participated in union-level competitions—the Spartakiads of the peoples of the USSR, which revealed remarkable athletes among the youth of the indigenous nationality. The first Master of Sports of the USSR in Kyrgyzstan was the athlete T. Mamirov (1957).

In 1955, the Kyrgyz State Institute of Physical Culture was established, and by 1979, there were 2,622 physical culture teams in the republic, uniting 639,583 people, including 4 honored masters of sports of the USSR, 34 masters of sports of the USSR of international class, and 1,237 masters of sports of the USSR.

Kyrgyz athletes first participated in the Olympic Games in 1960. S. Mursaliev earned an honorable 5th place in equestrian triathlon. In 1980, eight athletes from Kyrgyzstan participated in the Olympic Games in Moscow—K. Osmonaliev (weightlifting), A. Melentiev (shooting), A. Blinov (equestrian sports), A. Abushakmetov (fencing), T. Kolpakova, S. Dzhumanazarov, M. Sysoyeva, N. Chernetsky (athletics).

Weightlifter Kanybek Osmonaliev became a four-time world champion and a two-time European champion. The people of Kyrgyzstan take pride in their outstanding compatriot, seven-time world boxing champion among professionals Orzubek Nazarov.