Sport in Uzbekistan

Over the centuries, Uzbekistan has had a tradition of fostering equestrians and wrestlers (palvins). Some of the sports that originate in the country are the kurash, which is a type of upright wrestling. Other types of wrestling are belbogli kurash, turon, and boyqurgan all having the same origins. Other popular sports in Uzbekistan are football, boxing, wrestling, and judo.

Football

Main article: Football in Uzbekistan

Football is the most popular sport in Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan's premier football league is the Uzbek League, which features 14 teams since 2010, before 16. The current champions are FC Bunyodkor, and the team with the most championships is FC Pakhtakor Tashkent with eight. The current Player of the Year (2011) is Odil Ahmedov. Uzbekistan regularly participates in the AFC Champions League and the AFC Cup. Nasaf won AFC Cup in 2011, which is the first international club cup for Uzbek football.

The Pakhtakor Markaziy Stadium has a capacity of 35,000, and is mostly used for football matches.

Ice Hockey

Uzbekistan used to be part of the Soviet Union national ice hockey team.

Basketball

Uzbekistan used to be part of the Soviet Union national basketball team.

Rugby union

Main article: Rugby union in Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan used to be part of the Soviet Union national rugby union team, but since its independence in 1991, Uzbekistan has created its own national team.

Handball

Handball is one of Uzbekistan's most popular sports, but nothing special has been achieved.

Olympics

Main article: Uzbekistan at the Olympics

Since its independence in 1991, Uzbekistan has taken part in the Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics with increasing success. Uzbekistan has competed four times at the Summer Olympics, collecting one gold medal and five bronze medals in boxing, two gold medals and two silver medals in wrestling, and a silver medal in judo. Uzbekistan's only medal at the Winter Olympics was a gold medal in cross-country skiing in 1994.

Notable athletes

Ruslan Chagaev

Djamolidine Abdoujaparov, cyclist
Artur Taymazov, wrestler
Ruslan Chagaev, boxer
Lina Cheryazova, freestyle skier
Elvira Saadi, gymnast
Maksim Shatskikh, footballer

External links

Uzbek Olympic medal winners

Sport in Asia

Sovereign states	Afghanistan Armenia Azerbaijan Bahrain Bangladesh Bhutan Brunei Cambodia China Cyprus East Timor (Timor-Leste) Egypt Georgia India Indonesia Iran Iraq Israel Japan Jordan Kazakhstan North Korea South Korea Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Lebanon Malaysia Maldives Mongolia Myanmar Nepal Oman Pakistan Philippines Qatar Russia Saudi Arabia Singapore Sri Lanka Syria Tajikistan Thailand Turkey Turkmenistan United Arab Emirates Uzbekistan Vietnam Yemen

States with limited recognition	Abkhazia Nagorno-Karabakh Northern Cyprus Palestine South Ossetia Taiwan

Dependencies and other territories	British Indian Ocean Territory Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Hong Kong Macau

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, February 08, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.