The 28th World Winter Universiade currently underway in Almaty will be remembered in the annals of the Uzbek sports with that the first snowboarder in the national team.
In general, Uzbekistan is represented by three athletes at the Universiade, serving in two sports: two skiers and one snowboarder.
Our skiers are already known in the world, because they are regular participants of international competitions, while the snowboarder is there for the first time.
Snowboard is one of the youngest sports in Uzbekistan. Its development began in the 2007-2008 season with the opening of a relevant department at the Republican School of Winter and Difficult-Technical Sports. Our athletes also have experience of participation in international competitions. The best result so far has been the 13th place.
“It is necessary to recognize that for all this time we have not had enough trips to international competitions. We got ready by training, buying uniforms,” says Ivan Merkushin, senior coach at the Republican School of Winter and Difficult-Technical Sports, coordinator of snowboard development in the Association of Winter Sports. “The 28th World Winter Universiade became the major competition that our snowboarder has participated in the entire history of its development in Uzbekistan.”
The current Universiade should be the starting point of our snowboarders to go to large complex international competitions. We plan to have the athletes in our school to participate in the Youth Olympic in 2018 and other competitions. This will be a prelude to the struggle to qualify for the Winter Olympics.
At the same time, last year, we began the development of another kind of Olympic snowboarding in the country, slope style. Training sessions are already in progress in Chimgan.
