Since the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Central Asian countries have regularly competed in international competitions under their national flags. Further development and success of athletes from these countries took place in their own way.
In early August 2021, the regular Summer Olympic Games ended in Japan. In light of the unstable epidemiological situation in the world, these sports competitions in Tokyo can be considered special: the 2020 Olympics were postponed a year later; additional restrictive measures were not easy for either the athletes or the organizers. Nevertheless, the Olympic Games in Tokyo took place.
At the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Kazakhstan managed to achieve only eight bronze medals. For the first time in history, there was not a single gold and silver in the basket of the Kazakhstani national team, which is considered a failure. Kazakhstan won bronze medals in the following sports: judo – 1 medal, weightlifting – 2 medals, boxing – 2 medals, freestyle wrestling – 1 medal, karate – 2 medals.
For the national team of Uzbekistan, the games in Tokyo turned out to be very fruitful. The first gold medal in the piggy bank of the national team of Uzbekistan was brought by the nineteen-year-old taekwondo player Ulugbek Rashidov. Uzbekistan finished the games with three gold and two bronze medals, rising above all in the team event among the Central Asian countries. Uzbekistan showed its best side in such sports as boxing, taekwondo, weightlifting, judo and wrestling.
For Kyrgyzstan, these games were the most victorious in the history of the country. The sports team brought home two silver and one bronze medals. It is interesting that Kyrgyzstan earned all the medals in one and the same sport – wrestling.
These games were historic for Turkmenistan. The country has earned its very first medal in the Olympics. It was brought by the weightlifter Polina Guryeva.
For Tajikistan, the games in Tokyo were not crowned with success. Of the eleven athletes who represented the national team, none managed to climb the podium.
Representatives of the countries of Central Asia began to participate in the Olympic Games as part of the USSR national team. The last time the countries of the region were together at the 1992 Summer and Winter Olympics in Barcelona and in Albertville as part of the “United Team”, which included athletes from the former USSR countries. All five Central Asian countries were represented at the Summer Games in Barcelona, while at the Winter Olympics in Albertville, only athletes from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan were included in the United Team. In the final team event, the United Team took first place in the Summer Olympics in Barcelona and second in the Winter Olympics in Albertville.
The development of sports requires significant financial investments. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the countries of Central Asia were left without sufficient financial and programmatic training resources for the development of sports. In the years of independence, problems with the inaccessibility of practicing professional sports among the suddenly impoverished population and weak state support came to the fore. On the basis of the remaining Soviet system for the development of athletes, the countries of the region tried to develop national strategies for the promotion of sports and the preparation of athletes for international competitions.
Kazakhstan
The public of Kazakhstan considers the results of the Tokyo Olympics to be a failure. The country’s sports team showed their best result at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, where they managed to win three gold, five silver and nine bronze medals.
Relative failure at the Tokyo Games showed that financial investments alone are not enough to achieve high results in sports. For example, Kazakhstan has one of the highest prize pools for winning the Olympic Games. In case of victory, Kazakhstani athletes and coaches receive $ 250,000 USD for the first place, $ 150,000 for the second place, and $ 75,000 for the third place. In addition, about 10 billion tenge (about 2 million 350 thousand US dollars) is allocated from the state budget for the preparation of athletes for the Olympic Games every year [2].
Sports that are well developed in Kazakhstan include boxing, judo, karate, weightlifting and wrestling. Summarizing all the Olympic Games in which the national team of Kazakhstan played, the largest number of medals were earned in the following sports:
Kyrgyzstan
The current Olympic Games in Tokyo turned out to be a real triumph for Kyrgyzstan. The national team won two silver and one bronze medals. Nevertheless, the performance of the Kyrgyz Olympic team at the Olympic Games is unstable. At the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Beijing and Sydney, the team won medals, however, from the games in Rio 2016, London 2012, Athens 2004 and Atlanta 1996, the team returned empty-handed. Today, Kyrgyzstan, like Turkmenistan, are the only countries in the region that, during the period of their independence, have not yet won the first Olympic gold medal.
Systematic and timely financing of sports is one of the most pressing problems in the country. Of the promised 106 million soms (1 million 250 thousand US dollars), only 16 million soms (188 thousand US dollars) were allocated for preparation for the Tokyo Olympics. But this time, despite a very significant reduction in government funding, Kyrgyz athletes won three medals.
The prize fund for winning the Tokyo Olympics was set at 10 million soms ($ 118,000) for a gold medal, 7 million soms ($ 82,000) for a silver medal and 5 million soms ($ 59,000) for a bronze medal. Freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling is the most successfully developed of all sports in Kyrgyzstan. This is confirmed by the medals won at the Olympic Games in Tokyo and Beijing in this sport - two silver and one bronze in Tokyo, and, conversely, one silver and two bronzes in Beijing. Judo is another sport in which the Kyrgyz national team managed to win a medal at the Olympics. The first Olympic in the history of independent Kyrgyzstan was brought by Aydin Smagulov at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, where he received a bronze medal in third place.
Tajikistan
At the Tokyo Olympics, the Tajik national team failed to win a single medal. For the country, the games in Tokyo, just like in Athens, Sydney and Atlanta, were not crowned with success. Over the years of independence, participation in the Summer Olympic Games in the country's piggy bank has four medals: one gold and one silver, and two bronze. The gold medal for the country was won by the hammer thrower Dilshod Nazarov, and the silver medal was brought by the first Tajik woman boxer Mavzuna Chorieva. In addition, they won one bronze medal in wrestling and one in judo at the Beijing Games in 2008. The size of the prize fund in case of victory was set as follows - for a gold medal, athletes could count on 300 thousand somoni (26 thousand dollars), for a silver one 250 thousand somoni (22 thousand US dollars) and for a bronze 200 thousand somoni (17 thousand dollars).
Turkmenistan
For Turkmenistan, the games in Tokyo were truly historic - the country earned its first Olympic medal. The silver medal was won by 21-year-old weightlifter Polina Guryeva. There is no publicly available data on the prize money and the amount of funding for sports in Turkmenistan.
Uzbekistan
According to the results in the team classification of the Olympic Games in Tokyo, the national team of Uzbekistan rose above all the countries of Central Asia, being on the 32nd line. However, in the entire history of Uzbekistan's participation in the Olympic Games, the best result is the performance of the national team in the games in Rio in 2016, when they managed to win four gold, two silver and seven bronze medals. And the 1996 Atlanta Olympics are considered the most disastrous, when the national team won only one silver and one bronze medal.
Athletes from Uzbekistan traditionally win in such sports as boxing, judo and wrestling.
Prizes for medals in Uzbekistan were established as follows - 200 thousand US dollars are given for a gold medal, 100 thousand US dollars for silver and 50 thousand US dollars for bronze. The coaches are awarded 40 thousand US dollars for gold, and the mentors of bronze medal holders - 20 thousand US dollars. At the same time, 62.5 billion soums were allocated to prepare athletes for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo (5,843,156 US dollars at the exchange rate as of early September 2021).