Rinata Sultanova, the winner of a historic Asian Games gold medal in road cycling, has returned home: the champion of the 2026 Asian Games was welcomed today at Astana airport, infohub.kz reports.
The athlete was greeted by representatives of the Ministry of Tourism and Sports of the Republic of Kazakhstan, as well as friends, family and fans.
"Daily training and working on myself helped me achieve victory. Of course, I am glad that I won two medals at the Asian Games at once. My main goal was to win in road cycling, and I achieved it. Many thanks to everyone who supported me! To be honest, I did not expect so many fans at the airport today, or that my friends would come specially from Pavlodar. I am very happy," Sultanova said.
Earlier, Kursiv wrote that Kazakh cyclist Rinata Sultanova became a silver medalist at the 2026 Asian Games in the omnium on the track. After four disciplines, she scored 133 points and lost only to Japan's Yumi Kajihara.
This is already Sultanova's second medal at the 2026 Asian Games. On September 20, the Kazakh athlete won the individual time trial on the road and brought the national team its first gold of the current Games.
Recall that the 20th Summer Asian Games have ended in Japan. Kazakhstan's national team won 84 medals — 12 gold, 24 silver and 48 bronze — and took eighth place in the overall standings among 46 participating countries.
At the 2023 Games in Hangzhou, Kazakhstan took 11th place. Thus, compared with the previous Asian Games, the team moved up three positions and increased its number of gold medals. At the same time, Kazakhstan's national team achieved a number of historic results in Olympic disciplines at the current Games.