1. A W I N N E R

2. A few days ago, I found interesting information in the local
newspaper about the 18-year-old girl from
Nizhnevartovsk (my home city), who won a bronze medal
in the European para tae kwon do championship.
The girl’s name is Aishat Ramazanova.
I got interested in her personality and
searched for more information about
her on the Internet. In the photo there
was a beautiful slender girl with
sparkling dark eyes, luxuriant long black
hair and a sunny smile.

3. Aishat was born in Makhachkala (Dagestan).
When she was 3, her family moved to
Nizhnevartovsk, a city in Western Siberia.
Her coach met Aishat for the first time when she
was at school and somehow he felt she wasn’t
an ordinary girl. He suggested that she join his
sport club and take up tae kwon do. At first she
refused, she was shy and had never thought of
doing any sport, but the coach managed to
persuade her to have a try.

4. In the interview which I read on the Internet Aishat
recalls her first steps in sport. She said that it
had taken her a long time and lots of tears to
believe in herself. Not once had she felt despair
and was about to give up. But due to her
coach’s encouraging words, support and great
experience as a coach she had managed to
overcome her shyness and fear and to achieve
her first success in sport.
Now, she said, she couldn’t imagine her life
without sport.

5. When I was reading the interview with Aishat, I understood
that I admire her a lot. I admire her strength of spirit,
stamina, purposefulness and optimism.
I don’t know whether she was born with a disability or
maybe she lost her hand in some accident, in any case, in
spite of her physical disability she is full of life, enjoys
sport trainings, sets challenging goals to herself and
achieves them.
I think she is a vivid example for a lot of young people who
don’t know how to make their life interesting and
eventful, who complain about boring routine school life
and don’t do anything to change it.

6. I admire Aishat even more when I read about her
hobbies – embroidering and beadwork. These
hobbies require very delicate and neat work. Even
people without any disabilities may find it not easy
to create beautiful things with a needle, threads and
beads. It’s hard to imagine a person doing such
delicate work actually with one hand.
For me it shows Aishat not only as a strong-willed
athlete, but also as a girl with a sense of beauty,
with creative nature.

7. So, what I learnt about Aishat Ramazaniva made me
think about my life, about my ambitions and ways
to fulfill them. I want more people to know about
her.
I would like to meet that wonderful girl, talk with
her, introduce her to my friends and my family
and maybe even become friends. I think such a
meeting is possible, for we live in the same city.