Serik Kalimbayev – A life dedicated to hockey

Back

Serik Kalimbayev hails from Kazakhstan and he is the General Secretary of the Kazakhstan Hockey Federation. A true leader in the world of hockey in Kazakhstan, this is his life story – the story of a life dedicated to hockey.

His career in hockey began at a young age in 1975 when he was 14 years old. By chance, he saw a recruitment ad in the newspaper for field hockey. At the time, he did not know much about playing hockey on the grass, but was lucky enough to get recruited and find a coach willing to mentor him. He started going to tournaments and finishing in first place in his own age group. After leaving the Youth team, he was invited to the team of masters, where he continued his sports career until 1990 when the collapse of the Soviet Union happened. During this time he saw great success, becoming champion of the Soviet Union 11 times, and twice won the European Champions Cup as part of a Dynamo Alma-Ata team in such competitions as the Spartakiad (sport and athletic meeting) of the Peoples Republic of the USSR (held among the countries of the Soviet Union and equated to the Olympic Games).
Later, having returned to his homeland after playing in championships abroad, he devoted his energies towards the Kazakhstan Hockey Federation, where he served dual roles as the Vice President of the Federation and the Coach of the Women’s national team of Kazakhstan. In 2015, he took on the role of the Secretary-General of the Kazakhstan Hockey Federation.

Having devoted his life to the sport of hockey, Serik is a prime role-model for the younger generation and his innumerable contributions to the sport over the years speak for themselves. As Secretary-General of Kazakhstan Hockey Federation, he is constantly striving to better the sport of hockey in Kazakhstan. According to his own words:

“I gave more than half of my life to field hockey and this sport has become my activity in life, first as a hockey player, then in a managerial position, where I am a General Secretary now. My motivation is the same – to achieve the same results, and maybe even better, which we achieved during the Soviet Union, where our national team was the bronze medalist of the Olympic Games, the fourth in the world, and the second in Europe. I believe that this is a very high result and not every country today can boast of such results.

Also, an important factor, I consider our very capable and talented youth generation, who strive to develop, achieve success in sports, and which we can and want to develop in our Federation, jointly winning first places in various competitions.”

 

 

Real Time Analytics