List of Top Athletes of Turkmenistan

• Diyorbek Urozboev

Uzbekistan’s Diyorbek Urozboev won Olympic bronze in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. In 2017, he earned a global bronze in Budapest. During 2012 (Tashkent), he has won very few World Cup titles and has made incredible development in the U60kg division. In 2013, he competed in the World Junior Championship and won silver against An Ba-Ul. He is known for his outstanding pick-ups. Urozboev won gold at the Tbilisi Grand Prix in 2016. He took silver at the Grand Prix in Tashkent in 2018 as well as bronze in 2019. In the same year 2019, he won bronze at the Grand Slam in Abu Dhabi.

• Inha Babakova

Inha Babakova (née Butkus), a professional long jumper who competed for the Soviet Union but subsequently Ukraine, was born on June 26, 1967. She was born in the Turkmen SSR city of Ashgabat. 2.05 meters is her record. Babakova earned an Olympic bronze medal in 1996 in Atlanta and was crowned Championship Title in 1999 in Seville. She also won silver and bronze medals at the World Championships in 1991 & 1995, as well as silver and bronze titles in 1997 and 2001. In 13 of the 14 campaigns (1991-2004), Track – And – field News magazine put her in the world’s leading ten in their merit pay rankings, excluding 1998. Ten times she had been in the top five. Amongst female high-jumpers, only Stefka Kostadinova has far more top ten ranks.

• Polina Guryeva

Weightlifter Polina Guryeva, Turkmenistan’s first-ever Olympic medalist, was presented with a house, and a car, plus $50,000 in money at an event in the Central Asian capital of the country Ashgabat.

Guryeva, 21, earned silver for Turkmenistan in the female’s 59kg weightlifter event at the Tokyo Olympics last year. This was the ex-Soviet state’s first Olympic medal and sole medal in its lifetime. Marat Niyazov, a Turkmen sniper, earlier won a silver medal for the Soviet Union at the 1960 Rome Olympics.

The Honoured Trainer of Turkmen, Serdar Berdymukhamedov, the 39-year-old son of the state’s hardline president Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, oversaw the celebrations following Guryeva’s triumph.

• Gulbadam Babamuratova

Gulbadam Babamuratova was born on August 24, 1991, and is a judoka and sambo fighter from Turkmenistan who competes in the 52 kg division. International Sports Champion.

Gulbadam Babamuratova studied sports and tourism at the National Academy of Sports & Tourism.

She won the world title in the up to 52 kg weight class at the 36th International Sambo Championships in Minsk in 2012. She won the Championship gold medal in Sambo in December 2012.

At the Universiade in Kazan in 2013, she won the gold medal in belt wrestling and bronze in sambo (52 kg). She earned a gold medal in sports and fighting sambo at the Asian Championships in Tashkent in June 2014. She won a silver medal in the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon. She won gold and silver medals at the 2014 Asian Beach Games. Babamuratova won Turkmenistan’s first-ever judo world championship gold medal in Tashkent in October 2015, defeating Maria Ertl of Germany in the 52-kilo crown final. She was chosen to participate in the 2020 Olympics and was matched in the first round by Gili Cohen.