Too pretty for sports!? And she’s Asian!
Sabina Altynbekova, dubbed the Anna Kournikova of volleyball, has caused controversy in her homeland because of her gorgeous looks.
The Kazakhstan beauty has become an internet sensation after traveling with her team to Taiwan for the 2014 Asian Junior Women’s Volleyball Championship.
The 17-year-old attracted enormous attention because of her good looks, and Kazakhstan coach Nurlan Sadikov was furious, saying it was a distraction to the team.
“It is impossible to work like this,” Sadikov told Tengrin News. “The crowd behaves like there is only one player at the championship.”
Altynbekova’s mother Nuripa Amrievna said she had wanted her daughter to attend law school rather than play sport, adding the teenager had been asked to model.
“But she will not go there (become a model) — we as parents are against (it),” Amrievna said.
One YouTube clip uploaded a week ago of Altynbekova has already attracted almost 2,000,000 views.
Taiwanese fans arrived an hour early to games holding Kazakhstan flags and following her every move.
The attention is even becoming too much for Altynbekova herself, who appealed for fans to stop setting up social media pages focused on her.
“I was flattered at first but it’s all getting a little bit much,” Altynbekova said. “I want to concentrate on playing volleyball and to be famous for that, not anything else.”
Who cares?! We’re just glad everyone is distracted by an Asian girl!
What do you mean ‘who cares?!’?? This girl is a minor and being harassed/overhweled/borderline stalked (how creepy is the posted video??) by strangers. That’s not a compliment, that’s a violent invasion of her privacy. Asian women are already expected to take it as a compliment when they’re reduced to their looks, it’d be nice to not have a media outlet supposedly dedicated to them do the same.
I hope she finishes law school quickly so she can handle my next divorce
She is very beautiful and I greatly admire her Volleyball ability as a former Varsity HS and College player myself. Let’s not forget that there are many other great looking professional athletes. Remember the Dutch Field Hockey Team?? Sabina Altynbekova is on a higher level than Anna Kournikova. Anna was using her looks and sexuality at a very young age to capitalize on endorsements whereas Sabina never asked for the attention. Also, Anna’s sexuality far outweighed her ability to play tennis. I am so happy that Sabina is bringing positive attention to the sport of Volleyball as it wasn’t very popular at all back when I was playing. Hardly anyone attended the games as good as they were.