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figure skating

Astana to Host Four Continents Figure Skating Championships in 2027

Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana, will host the ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships in 2027, one of figure skating’s major international competitions and the main ISU championship for skaters from Asia, the Americas, Africa, and Oceania. The International Skating Union announced that the event will take place from February 9-14, 2027. It will be the first ISU Figure Skating Championship held in Kazakhstan, and the first Four Continents Championships staged in Central Asia. The competition traditionally includes men’s singles, women’s singles, pairs, and ice dance. The ISU said the event would bring “the world’s best Figure Skaters” from the four regions to the Kazakh capital. The governing body said the decision builds on rising interest in the sport after Mikhail Shaidorov won men’s singles Olympic gold at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics. The championship is expected to be the largest figure skating event ever held in Kazakhstan. The country has previously hosted major multisport competitions that included figure skating, including the 2011 Asian Winter Games and the 2017 Winter Universiade. ISU President Jae Youl Kim said the event would give figure skating fans across Central Asia a chance to see “world-class competition firsthand” and their “heroes and role models” on the ice. He said Astana would provide an “outstanding stage” for athletes, fans, and stakeholders. The Kazakhstan Figure Skating Union said it was “very pleased and honored” to host the championship and would work to ensure it was held “at the highest level.” Shaidorov welcomed the decision, saying he had long dreamed of an ISU championship being held in Kazakhstan. “This is a huge victory for me and for all of Kazakhstan,” he said in the ISU announcement. He added that figure skating’s popularity in Kazakhstan had grown since his Olympic victory and said he hoped the Astana championship would give fans “unforgettable moments.” Shaidorov also won the ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships in Seoul in February 2025, becoming the second Kazakh skater to win the men’s singles title at the event. Denis Ten won the same title in Seoul in 2015. Ten later became an important figure in Kazakhstan’s sporting history after winning bronze at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, the country’s first Olympic figure skating medal.

World Nomad Games

Tea, Tug-of-War, and Team GB at the World Nomad Games

A British tug-of-war athlete preparing for a nomadic sports festival in Kyrgyzstan sounds like the start of a strange travel documentary. It is also part of the appeal of the World Nomad Games, which return to Kyrgyzstan from August 31 to September 6, 2026, with The Times of Central Asia once again reporting from the ground. Since their launch in 2014, the Games have grown far beyond their roots, turning traditional sports into an international meeting point for athletes, spectators, and cultures that rarely share the same arena. What began as a Kyrgyz initiative has become one of the world’s more unusual sporting gatherings, mixing horseback combat, archery, wrestling, eagle hunting, strength contests, board games, food, music, and craft traditions in a format closer to a living festival than a conventional tournament. For visiting teams, the challenge is not only athletic. It is cultural, physical, and occasionally bewildering in the best possible way, as The Times of Central Asia explored in an interview with Sam Pollard from Team Great Britain. TCA: How did you first become involved with the World Nomad Games, and what drew you to competing there? Sam Pollard: I read Sovietistan: A Journey Through Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan by Erika Fatland in my second year at university, in 2023. I already knew I wanted to travel to Central Asia after university because it was completely unknown to me. I like going to places where no one I know has been, and I was excited to experience it for myself and see whether it was a hidden gem. It absolutely turned out to be just that. The book mentioned Kok Boru, or Kokpar, as one of Central Asia’s traditional games. I searched for it on YouTube and found a video of it being played at the World Nomad Games. I thought, what on earth are the World Nomad Games? I did more research, looked at some of the sports, and saw that the Games lined up perfectly with when I was hoping to travel to Central Asia. Initially, we planned to go as spectators, but then I saw that you could apply to participate. Because my friends and I had a tug-of-war background at university, we thought we’d apply, see what happened, and hope for the best. What drew us to competing was the chance to learn about and embrace nomadic culture, which we didn’t really know much about. We are quite open-minded people, so we were excited to learn from different cultures and see what we could take from them. Each “Stan” is completely different, which made the region even more attractive to us. Kyrgyzstan has its beautiful mountains, Uzbekistan has its amazing mosques, Kazakhstan has the great steppes - Mangistau is incredible - and Tajikistan has the Pamir Highway. There was a real draw for us in the unknown. TCA: What was it like being the flagbearer for the UK team at the Kazakhstan Nomad Games in 2024? Sam Pollard: It was undoubtedly the...

World Table Tennis Championships

Astana to Host 2027 World Table Tennis Championships

The ITTF World Table Tennis Championships Finals Astana 2027 will take place in Kazakhstan’s capital from May 22 to May 30, 2027, becoming the first world table tennis championship ever held in Central Asia. The tournament was officially presented at the ADD Table Tennis Center Astana. According to Kazakhstan’s Vice Minister of Tourism and Sports Serik Zharasbayev, the country will host seven international Olympic sports tournaments in 2027, with the World Table Tennis Championships expected to become one of the year’s largest sporting events. Representatives from more than 100 countries are expected to participate. The main venue will be Barys Arena, which has a capacity of approximately 8,000 spectators. Additional matches will be hosted at the Qazaqstan Athletics Sports Complex, which can accommodate around 6,800 people. “Our capital was selected to host the World Championships for several reasons, one of the main ones being the availability of major sports facilities that fully meet international requirements,” Zharasbayev told journalists during a briefing. According to the vice minister, a technical delegation from the International Table Tennis Federation has already inspected the venues and gave the tournament infrastructure high marks. “The entire infrastructure is being evaluated from the airport to the sports facilities. At this point, Kazakhstan, and Astana in particular, possess all the necessary resources to host competitions of this level,” he said. Zharasbayev also noted that table tennis remains one of the fastest-growing sports in Kazakhstan. Organizers expect approximately 1,000 athletes to take part in the championships. The tournament will also serve as one of the key ranking qualification stages for the 2028 Summer Olympic Games. Medals will be awarded in five categories: men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles. Asiya Ilyasova, the tournament’s marketing and commercial director, said organizers are hopeful for a strong performance by Kazakhstan’s national team. “We have a strong national team that has consistently delivered high-level results in recent years. For example, Kirill Gerassimenko and Alan Kurmangaliyev are ranked among the world’s top 30 players. They will represent Kazakhstan at the World Championships, and we have high expectations for them,” Ilyasova said. According to organizers, Astana is expected to welcome large numbers of foreign visitors, including fans and official delegations, particularly from Southeast Asian countries where table tennis enjoys enormous popularity. In the coming months, organizers plan to launch competitions among souvenir manufacturers to create products featuring Kazakh national motifs, as well as contests for fashion designers to develop uniforms for volunteers, staff, and official tournament merchandise. An open competition will also be announced to design the official mascot of the championships. The Times of Central Asia previously reported that Astana will also host the 2026 Future Games, an international tournament combining traditional sports and esports disciplines.

Ice Hockey

Kazakhstan Returns to National Ice Hockey Team World Championship Top Division

Kazakhstan’s men’s national ice hockey team has secured an immediate return to the top division of the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship after winning the 2026 Division I, Group A tournament in Sosnowiec, Poland. Under the championship format, the two lowest-ranked teams in the top division are relegated each year, while the top two teams from Division I, Group A earn promotion. Kazakhstan and France were relegated from the elite division in 2025 and returned this May to compete for promotion back to the top tier. The Division I tournament, which began on May 2, featured Kazakhstan, France, Poland, Ukraine, Japan, and Lithuania. Kazakhstan entered the tournament under head coach Talgat Zhailauov, who was leading the national team at a World Championship for the first time. By May 7, Kazakhstan had moved to the top of the standings with victories over Lithuania (4-1), Japan (6-0), and Poland (3-2). The decisive match came against Ukraine, Kazakhstan’s closest challenger in the standings. Vsevolod Logvin opened the scoring for Kazakhstan before Ukraine equalized. In the second period, goals from Kirill Lyapunov and veteran forward Roman Starchenko gave Kazakhstan a 3-1 advantage, but Ukraine fought back to level the score once again. Ukraine then took the lead early in the third period before Batyrlan Muratov quickly equalized, sending the game into overtime. No winner emerged in extra time, and Muratov scored the decisive goal in the shootout to seal a dramatic 5-4 victory for Kazakhstan. The win lifted Kazakhstan to 11 points, leaving the team unreachable with one round remaining for Poland, Ukraine, and France, all of whom had seven points. “The guys are fantastic. I’m proud of them, and I think the whole country is proud of this team,” Zhailauov said after the match. “It was an extremely difficult game today. I wouldn’t say we were lucky, we simply had a little more skill.” The coach added that team selection had been based not on experience, but on players’ current form. “I believed in the younger players, and with every game they kept improving. It turns out the choice was the right one,” he said. Kazakhstan will play its final match of the tournament against France on May 8. The game will have no impact on Kazakhstan’s standing, while France must win in regulation time to keep its hopes of promotion alive. The Times of Central Asia previously reported that Kazakhstan had introduced a legal ban on the use of public funds to finance foreign athletes in team sports, including hockey.

Sports

Tajikistan Hosts Grand Slam Judo, Wins Three Golds

Tajikistan showcased its world-class judo skills during the Dushanbe Grand Slam over the weekend, picking up three gold medals in a competition that featured 240 judoka, or practitioners of the martial art, from about three-dozen countries. While Russia topped the standings with three golds, three silvers and six bronze medals, Tajikistan’s second-place finish (three golds and one bronze) reflected the high priority of the sport in a country that is also promoting gushtingiri, a traditional form of Tajik wrestling that has some similarities to judo. Mongolia came third with two golds, two silvers and one bronze. Tajikistan’s capital has become a fixture on the international judo circuit in the last few years. The city hosted the 2024 World Junior Championships, and the Dushanbe Grand Slam was upgraded from Grand Prix status, making it a more prestigious tournament that awards a greater number of ranking points. Dushanbe will also host the World Judo Masters tournament on December 18-20, an event that Ismoil Mahmadzoir, president of the Tajikistan Judo Federation, has said will help Tajikistan’s judoka prepare for the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028. Tajikistan’s emergence as a world judo power reflects years of investment and youth training in the sport, setting an example for the development of other sports in a country with relatively limited resources. Rasul Boqiev won Olympic bronze, the country’s first judo medal at the games, in Beijing in 2008. At the Paris Olympics in 2024, judokas Somon Makhmadbekov (in the -81kg weight category) and Temur Rakhimov (+100kg) also won bronze medals in their weight classes. The focus on judo in Tajikistan is sometimes associated with the legacy of gushtingiri, a traditional form of Tajik wrestling that has some similarities. In gushtingiri, a contestant tries to grab the belt of an opponent and execute a throw to the ground. While the sport goes back thousands of years in the wider region and has different names, the International Gushtingiri Federation was registered in 2022 in Switzerland, an international hub of sports associations, to standardize the rules and broaden its appeal. President Emomali Rahmon of Tajikistan is the honorary president of the federation, a sign of support for gushtingiri at the highest political level. At the May 1-3 Grand Slam in Dushanbe, Makhmadbekov – seventh in the world in his weight category - defeated Bernd Fasching of Austria for the gold, saying he was delighted to win in front of a home crowd. Makhmadbekov secured the world junior title in 2019. Tajikistan’s other gold medal winners in Dushanbe were Muhiddin Asadulloev, who is fourth in the world in his -73kg weight category, and Nurali Emomali (-66kg). Emomali is ranked second in the world in his category, and another Tajik athlete, Obid Zhebov, is just behind him in third place. Enthusiastic crowds at the Qasri Tennis area in Dushanbe delighted some of the athletes. Among them was Italian veteran Odette Giuffrida, who won gold in her -52kg category, according to tournament reports. “I wanted to compete in Dushanbe before I retire because...

Sports

European Athletes Dominate World Triathlon Championships in Samarkand

The city of Samarkand hosted the World Triathlon Championship Series (WTCS) from 25-26 April, further cementing Uzbekistan's reputation within the Olympic Movement. The event saw more than 150 athletes from over 40 countries compete on Samarkand’s Olympic-distance course, weaving through UNESCO World Heritage sites and historic Silk Road landmarks, including the breathtaking Eternal City complex. In the elite races, the world’s top triathletes battled for crucial ranking points. Vasco Vilaça from Portugal took gold in the men’s category with a time of 1:43:33, while the UK's Beth Potter secured the top spot on the podium for the women’s race after a dramatic final run segment through the historic city centre. "This weekend marked another landmark sporting occasion for Uzbekistan," said Otabek Umarov, Vice President of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) and Deputy Chairman of the National Olympic Committee of Uzbekistan. "By bringing the World Triathlon Championship Series to Samarkand, we have once again shown that Uzbekistan can successfully deliver some of the world’s biggest sporting events, blending our warm hospitality with world-class sport." This event follows a series of major international sporting events recently hosted in Uzbekistan, including the record-breaking World Taekwondo Junior Championships in April, the Fencing World Cup and the Judo Grand Slam, alongside the largest-ever OCA General Assembly. These successes underline a national strategy driven by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who has made the promotion of healthy and active lifestyles a cornerstone of the country's development. With 60% of Uzbekistan’s population under the age of 30, Mirziyoyev's initiatives focus on leveraging world-class sporting events to inspire the next generation to engage in physical activity and pursue excellence on the global stage.