Kazakhstan will no longer finance foreign athletes from state budget

The country seeks to identify priority sports based on the performance of national teams at Olympic, Paralympic, Deaflympic, Asian and Asian Para Games, tourism and sport minister Yerbol Myrzabossynov said, Kazinform News Agency correspondent reports.

Kazakhstan is represented in over 180 sports, preparing sports reserves in almost all these sports. However, the country’s athletes win medals in 13 summer and five winter Olympic sports only, indicating failures in training of athletes from the initial stage to high achievement sports, said the minister.

According to Myrzabossynov, training in non-Olympic sports absorbs more expenditure.

Under the draft law [on changes and additions to some legislative acts regarding physical culture and sport], it’s expected to clearly limit a list of high achievement sportsю They include sports, that a part of Olympic, Paralympic, Deaflympic, Asian and Asian Para Games programme as well as national sports. Sports, in which the country wins medals, will be identified as priority ones, therefore receiving financing on a priority basis at republican and local levels, he said.

The country is also to prioritize training of sports reserves in high achievement sports.

The draft law provides for limited funding of professional sports from the state budget, setting limits to run professional clubs. It bans funding foreign athletes at the expense of the budget and quasi-state sector entities.

The country is to reinvest the money it will save to promote children’s and youth sport as well as reconstruct sports facilities and provide them with sports equipment.

The draft law also seeks to introduce the notion of a ‘person accompanying a disabled athlete,’ providing assistance to athletes, who have disabilities of group 1, while travelling for sports events.

According to the document, the accredited sports federation will be required to take measures, aimed at preventing religious extremism and terrorism.