Kazakhstan hires foreigners to prepare athletes for Sochi Olympics

Kazakhstan has hired the leading foreign experts to help prepare its athletes for the Sochi Olympics, Tengrinews reports. "17 foreign experts, including highly qualified lubricators of skis and sport medics have been contracted to help prepare Kazakhstan national teams in 8 sports (ski racing, biathlon, figure skating, speed skating, short track, sledding, freestyle and ski jumping)," Tastanbek Yessentayev, Chairman of the Agency for Sports and Physical Education, said at the government meeting last week. According to Yessentayev, the highly qualified professionals and coaches will help keep the preparations on schedule between competitions and recovering periods. "Supervisors from the Federations, the National Olympic Committee and the Agency have been appointed for every sport to make sure that all the arising issues are solved promptly during the preparations. Contracts amounting to $700-$6,000 per month depending on the expected results have been signed with the leading athletes of the country," he added. Speaking about the athletes who have won the Sochi Olympics licenses, the Chairman said that most of them were from Eastern Kazakhstan, Akmola, Pavlodar, Western Kazakhstan Oblasts and Almaty city. Aktobe and Karaganda Oblasts were represented with the least number of athletes. By Altynai Zhumzhumina