Sports in Dagestan

Kamila Magomedova

Dagestan State University

Faculty of foreign languages

3-year

More than one million people are regularly engaged in physical culture and sports in Dagestan, which is 34% of the total population of the republic. Sport is quite developed in Dagestan. Parents teach children to play sports from childhood. We have a lot of different complexes and halls for different sports. The most popular sports in Dagestan are wrestling, football, mixed martial arts, box.

Wrestling. Thousands of young boys here dream of becoming famous and honored wrestlers, like the many lithe and muscly Olympic champions who came before them. The most important type of martial arts is wrestling. Wrestling in Dagestan is developed from time immemorial. Various wrestling competitions were often held to coincide with certain holidays.


The first world wrestling champion from Dagestan was Ali Aliyev (in 1959). Subsequently, this wrestler won at 4 more world forums (in 1961, 1962, 1966, 1967) and once was satisfied with “silver” (in 1963). He won the European championship in 1968.
The first European champion was Yuri Shakhmuradov (in 1966). He is also a world champion (1970) and 3-time European champion (1966, 1967 and 1969).
Zagalav Abdulbekov became The first Olympic champion in freestyle wrestling in Dagestan and the North Caucasus (in 1972).
Abdurashid Sadulayev. One of the most famous athletes nowadays. He is An Olympic champion (2016), four-time world champion (2014, 2015, 2018, 2019) silver medalist of the world championship (2017), four-time European champion (2014, 2018, 2019, 2020) European champion among athletes under 23 years of age (2016), winner of the European games (2015, 2019), four-time champion of Russia (2014, 2015, 2017, 2018).

Boxing. Boxing has always been the main competitor to wrestling, but due to the lack of high-profile victories in the ring, it was inferior in popularity. The first major success in the international arena came to boxers from Dagestan in 1985, when Nurmagomed Shanavazov became European Champion. He is the first European champion in the Republic.

Nurmagomed Shanavazov
The first Olympic champion in Dagestan and the North Caucasus was Gaidarbek Gaidarbekov (in 2004). He is the third European champion in the Republic (2004). Photo https://riadagestan.ru/

Judo. Judo has a relatively shorter history than wrestling or Boxing.

1)The first European champion and world champion in Dagestan is Tagir haybulayev. He is also the second Olympic champion in the Republic (2012)
The first Olympic champion in Dagestan was Mansur Isayev (in 2012) 

Football. Football also has a lot of fans in Dagestan. The most famous football club is Anzhi. The peak of its popularity comes in 2011-2013, when Russian billionaire of Lezgian origin Suleyman Kerimov bought the club and started its development. In 2012, Guus Hiddink became the club’s head coach . During this period, many famous players played for Anzhi. And we were able to become bronze medalists of the Russian championship.  Currently, Anzhi is still continuing its development and trying to reach new heights, but it is not so successful.

Currently, thanks to our athletes performing in the UFC, mixed martial arts has become very popular.Khabib Hurmagomedov is the current UFC lightweight champion. Also Islam Makhachev, Zabit Magomedsharipov, Rustam Khalilov and many other Dagestan athletes are quite famous and continue to improve their positions in the UFC rating.

Khabib Nurmagomedov
Islam Makhachev

Today, the Republic of Dagestan is one of the leading sports regions of the country, a center for training sports reserves in Russian national teams in martial arts, as evidenced by the achievements of Dagestani athletes, achieved at the Championships and Championships of Russia, Europe and the world, and, in particular, at the Olympic games over the past decades.

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