Today a ceremony has been held in the capital, on behalf of President Serdar Berdimuhamedov, to honor our athletes who won prizes in prestigious international competitions in April-May 2023.

The solemn event, organized at the sports complex of martial arts of the capital’s Olympic Park, symbolically coincided with the celebration of Ashgabat City Day.

In the period of the Revival of the New Epoch of the Powerful State, on the initiative of President Serdar Berdimuhamedov, as well as the National Leader of the Turkmen people, Chairman of the Halk Maslakhaty, our Hero Arkadag, consistent steps are taken for bringing national sports to the world level, achieving high success by our athletes and enhancing Turkmenistan’s reputation as the largest sports country.

The popularization and development of the physical training and health-improving movement and high-performance sports was initially identified as one of the priorities of the state policy, which has a strongly pronounced social character. After all, active physical training and sports are an indispensable condition for the people’s health, whose happiness and wellbeing is the basis of our prosperous state.

It is for these purposes that modern sports and health-improving complexes, multi-type stadiums, sports schools, fitness halls and other specialized facilities with all the necessary equipment have been built in recent years, and are under construction now in all regions of the country. The methods of training athletes, specialists and coaches, and the competitions holding practice have been improved.

The construction of the largest Olympic Park in Ashgabat, which has no analogues in the Central Asian region, which hosted the 5th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games were with great success in 2017 that opened a new bright page in the history of national sports, contributed to bringing Turkmen sports to a new level.

Major sporting events, which are organized in our country with increasing frequency, as well as the victories of our athletes in prestigious international tournaments, clearly testify to the success of the ongoing reforms in this area.

Today, the best representatives of national sports continue to delight their compatriots with their high achievements in major world competitions.

Thus, 2021 has written a new bright page in the history of national sports, that is, the first Olympic silver medal at the 32th Summer Olympic Games in Japan.

The current year 2023 ongoing under the motto “Happy youth with Arkadag Serdar”, also adds new awards to the collection of Turkmen athletes.

President Serdar Berdimuhamedov sent his sincere congratulations to the athletes of the national teams of Turkmenistan who became winners of international competitions. The audience listened with special attention to the Complimentary Address of the head of state.

The message emphasized that a great deal of work is under way in our independent Homeland aimed at the development of sports, the education of a comprehensively developed healthy generation, stepping up the Olympic movement, and strengthening international partnership in this area. “The Program for the Development of Physical Culture and Sports in Turkmenistan in 2021-2025”, as well as the “Revival of the New Epoch of the Powerful State: The National Program for the Socio-Economic Development of Turkmenistan in 2022-2052”, setting new objectives for us, including the achievement of new remarkable successes in Turkmen sports, provide for the further transformation of the country into a modern venue for holding international competitions, and the Olympic Games.

President Serdar Berdimuhamedov made a special emphasis on the fact that the period of the Revival of the New Epoch of the Powerful State opens up new opportunities for sporting achievements.

Thus, there is no doubt that the current galaxy of strong and agile athletes of the country will properly continue the endeavors of their legendary predecessors, whose grandiose successes still overwhelm the hearts of all Turkmenistan citizens with a sense of pride.

Traditional ceremonies of honoring them have become recognition of the huge contribution of the young generation of athletes to the development of domestic sports and raising the prestige of our country in the international sports arena.

During today’s ceremony that was held in a solemn atmosphere, the successful athletes who won prizes in international competitions in 2023 have been presented with valuable gifts on behalf of the President of Turkmenistan, as well as National Leader of the Turkmen people, Chairman of the Halk Maslakhaty Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov.

The first to be invited to the stage were athletes who honorably represented our country at the Asian Weightlifting Championship, held in the city of Jinju (Republic of Korea) from May 3 to May 13 this year.

Our compatriots also brought various medals from the Open Swimming Championship that took place in the city of Tashkent (Republic of Uzbekistan) in April 17-22.

To thunderous applause, the participants in international competitions in traditional karate such as the “Ararat Cup-2023” held in the city of Yerevan (Republic of Armenia) in April 23-30, and the “Asian Cup 2023” in the city of Tashkent (Republic of Uzbekistan) in May 12-15 of the current year, were invited to the stage.

Karatekas from Turkmenistan constantly take participation in international tournaments in various kinds of this popular martial art.

Thus, our athletes have distinguished themselves by taking prize-winning places at the Euro-Asian Championship in Ashihara Karate, held in the city of Istanbul (Republic of Turkey) in May 4-7.

Many medals were won at the international taekwondo tournament organized in the city of Tallinn (Republic of Estonia) in May 12-15.

Congratulations were also expressed to our compatriots who participated and got on the podium in international competitions in freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling, in particular, at the Tournament “Constantin-Alexandru and Ioan Popovici”, held in Bucharest (Romania) in May 11-16.

Kickboxers who won international competitions in the city of Istanbul (Republic of Turkey) in May 18-21 this year were also awarded.

The silver medal was won at the open Asian Judo Cup in the city of Kuwait, the capital of Kuwait, on April 28-29.

Turkmen athletes also achieved high success at the Asian Wrestling Championship, which took place in the city of Hangzhou (People’s Republic of China) on April 25–30.

The silver medal was brought from the final round of the Asian Tennis Championship among players under 14 years of age, organized in the city of Bhubaneswar (Republic of India) on April 2-15.

The youth hockey team of the country took second place at the World Ice Hockey Championship in the third division of Group A that took place in Cape Town, the capital city of South Africa, on April 17-23.

The team of Turkmenistan became the bronze medal winner in the international basketball tournament among students, held to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Heydar Aliyev in the city of Baku (Republic of Azerbaijan) on May 11-15.

Athletes who won various medals at the European Paralympic Powerlifting Open Championship, held in Tbilisi (Georgia) on September 21-30, 2022, deserved special mention.

The main heroes of the ceremony, including winners of international competitions, on whom the Homeland puts special hopes today, sincerely thanked for such a high appreciation of their achievements and expressed sincere gratitude to the head of state and the Hero Arkadag for their constant concern for the promotion and expansion of the mass physical training and sports movement, healthy way of life, and for creating all conditions in the country for doing various sports.

Young athletes assured that they would make every effort to further raise the sports prestige of Turkmenistan, the green Flag of which will always proudly fly at the largest competitions around the world.

The National Anthem of Turkmenistan was played in honor of the sports heroes.

Art figures gave a concert on the occasion of this significant event.