Azizova, Farida Shyhammed kizi

Early years. Career start

Farida Azizova was born on June 6, 1995 in the city of Gusar ^{[6] [5] in the} Gusar region of Azerbaijan . She has two brothers ^[5] . In 2000, Azizova began to go to school number 2 of the city of Gusar . In the 9th grade, she graduated from high school and entered the Guba State Socio-Economic College, and then - at the Azerbaijan State Academy of Physical Culture and Sports ^[7] .

Since 2003, Farida Azizova has been practicing taekwondo. So, as a child, Azizova had problems with her legs and doctors advised the girl to play sports, where she would mainly train her legs, such as football, running, taekwondo. Taekwondo was a new phenomenon in Gusar at that time and was interesting for Farida. Azizova fell in love with taekwondo and decided to continue to engage in this sport, starting training on October 5, 2003. A few months later, in 2004, Azizova took her first medal in taekwondo, becoming the bronze medalist of the youth championship of Azerbaijan ^[7] .

In 2007, at the Youth European Championships in Budapest, Azizova takes bronze, and a year later - the bronze of the youth world championship in Izmir . In May 2009, Azizova became the bronze medalist of the Youth European Championships in Trelleborg , and in June of the same year - the winner of the Youth European Championships in Zagreb , defeating Russian Maria Mavrina in the final ^[8] . Azizova became the first girl from Azerbaijan to win this tournament. A month later, in Seoul, Azizova took the bronze medal of the youth world championship ^[9] .

2010—2014

In August 2010, Farida Azizova won the open championship of the Republic of Korea and was awarded the title of “Strongest Taekwondo Championship”. The trainer of Azizova was then the head of the Taekwondo department of the Gusar district Kamran Garibov ^[9] .

In May 2011, Azizova, in her incomplete 16 years, takes part in the world championship debut in the Chinese city of Gyeongju (weight category over 73 kg), but loses her first fight in the 1/16 final of Evgenia Karimova from Uzbekistan and leaves the tournament. Also this year, Azizova wins the Russian Open Championship in Chelyabinsk and the Croatian Open Championship in Zagreb. In 2012, he won the silver medal at the US Open in Las Vegas . In the same year, Farida Azizova won the youth world championship in Sharm el-Sheikh , defeating Eileen Akdeniz from the Netherlands in the final. In May of the same year, he participated in the European Championship in Manchester , where he won in the 1/16 final against Elizabeth Buryak from Ukraine, but in the next round lost to Petra Matyashevich from Croatia ^[8] .

In May 2012, Azizova was awarded the national prize “Humai” ^[10] . In the same year, the 17-year-old Azizova represented Azerbaijan at the 2012 Olympic Games in London in the category of up to 67 kg , a license for which she received, taking second place at the 2011 international qualifying tournament in Baku . This was the second license for the 2012 Olympics won by Azerbaijani athletes. In addition, Azizova became the first Taekwondo player in the history of Azerbaijan to represent the country at the Women's Taekwondo Olympics ^[11] . The coach of the country's women's national team, Park Sun Mi, explained the success of Azizova at the tournament by the fact that she faithfully performed all her tasks ^[12] .

She began her speech at the Azizov Games from the preliminary stage, where she met with the silver medalist of the Beijing Olympics and the 2007 world champion Karin Sergeri from Canada, which she already won in the quarterfinals of the qualifying tournament in Baku. Azizova finished the first two rounds with a score 0: 0, but in the third she missed a blow from an opponent and was defeated with a score 0: 1. Due to the fact that Sergeri lost in the next round and did not qualify for the final, Azizova lost her chance to compete for the bronze ^[13] .

In 2013, Farida Azizova became the winner of such tournaments as the Alexandria Open, held in Alexandria and the European Championship among juniors in Chisinau , defeating the 2010 European champion Abi Nyar in the final from France. According to Azizova herself, at that tournament she suffered from a hernia and went on daying under the influence of three injections of pain medication ^[14] . In addition, Azizova becomes the bronze medalist of the German Open tournament in Hamburg and the World Cup in the Mexican city of Puebla ^[8] . Azizova began her performance at the World Championships with a victory over Lairempuya Fanai from India, then defeated Dayana Perisic from Serbia, and then - Chinese Yoon Go. Having lost Chia Chia Chuang from Taiwan in the semifinals, Azizova won a bronze medal ^[15] . However, due to a serious injury, Azizova was forced to miss the III Islamic Solidarity Games ^[16] .

At the end of 2013, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev handed over a warrant for a new apartment to Farida Azizova for her contribution to the development of sports in Azerbaijan, as well as an honorary diploma of the National Olympic Committee ^[17] .

2014—2018

In 2014, Azizova won the Luxor Open tournament in Luxor , became the silver medalist of the Bahrain Open tournaments in Manama and Russian Open in Moscow, as well as the bronze medalist of the Grand Prix tournaments in Suzhou , Ukraine Open in Kharkov , the Grand Prix in Manchester, as well as the European Championship , held in Baku ^[8] . By the end of the year, Azizova with 161 points occupied the 6th position in the Olympic rating of the World Taekwondo Federation ^[18] , rising by 3 lines compared to March ^[19] .

In 2015, Farida Azizova won the Moldova Open tournament in Chisinau, became the silver winner of the Ukraine Open in Kharkov and the bronze winner of the Grand Prix and Russian Open tournaments, which took place in Moscow. Also, in May this year, Azizova took part in the World Cup in Chelyabinsk, where in 1/8 she lost to Catherine Portacio from Colombia ^[8] .

In June 2015, Azizova represented Azerbaijan at the 1st European Games held in Baku. In the eighth finals, Azizova was won by Joyce Van Baaren from the Netherlands, and in the quarterfinals she defeated the 2012 European champion Nur Tatars from Turkey and went to the semifinals. At this stage, Azizova defeated the Swedish taekwondo player Elin Johansson . However, in the final match Farida Azizova lost to Anastasia Baryshnikova from Russia with a score of 5: 6 ^[20] . Azizova explained her defeat in the final by the fact that she made a mistake at the time of the strike, as a result she could not defend herself, allowing her opponent to take a point. Azizova’s further efforts did not help her escape from defeat ^[21] . For high achievements at the 1st European Games, as well as for achievements in the development of Azerbaijani sports, Farid Azizov was awarded the Progress medal on June 29, 2015 by the decree of President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev ^[22] . At the end of the year, Azizova won the championship of Azerbaijan in the category of up to 67 kg ^[23] .

In January 2016, Farida Azizova won the European qualifying tournament in Istanbul in having defeated Rabia Gülech from Germany in the final, and won a ticket to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro ^[24] . At the Games themselves, which were the second in her career for Azizova, she first won the bronze medalist of the London Olympics, Paige MacPherson from the USA (6: 5), and in the quarterfinals - Nigora Tursunkulova from Uzbekistan (5: 1). In the semifinals, Farida Azizova lost to future champion Hie-Rih Oh from South Korea with a score of 5: 6, and in the duel for bronze she was defeated by Cristel Guagby from Côte d'Ivoire (1: 7), taking fifth place ^[25] . After the Olympics, Farida Azizova rested for a month, after which she continued training ^[26] . The result of the performance disappointed Azizova. She later said in an interview that despite disappointment, she was able to deal with this, analyzed the errors, and will try to prevent them in the future. Azizova also noted that after the Olympics she became stronger in many things, that she no longer fails when she conceives points to her opponent, and that she does not pay attention to erroneous judging decisions ^[27] .

Also, 2016 was remembered for the Aziz victory at the Fujairah Open tournament in Al Fujairah and the silver medal of the Luxembourg Open tournament. In addition, Azizova performed at the European Championships in the Swiss city of Montreux , where she managed to reach the quarterfinals, but lost to the Turkish athlete Nur Tatar ^[8] . In addition, in April 2016, Azizova was awarded the Honorary Gold Medal of the Society by a decision of the Presidium of the Central Council of Dynamo Society for outstanding sports achievements and her special contribution to the Dynamo movement ^[4] . At the end of 2016, Azizova, due to an injury, was forced to miss the World Grand Prix finals and the team world championships, which were held in Baku ^[28] .

At the IV Islamic Solidarity Games , which were held in May 2017 in Baku, Farida Azizova in the 67 kg weight category reached the final, where she lost to Nur Tatar from Turkey with a score of 2: 8 and won a silver medal. In her interview, Azizova stated that the injury received in the first match prevented her from fighting with full force ^[29] . Also in 2017, Azizova won the Dutch Open tournament, which was held in Eindhoven and won bronze in the President’s Cup of the World Taekwondo Federation in Athens ^{[8] [30]} . In 2017, Azizova performed at the World Championships in Muju , where she lost to Korean Kim Jang Dee in the quarter-finals ^[31] , and at the World Summer Universiade in Taipei , where she lost her second duel ^[32] .

By March 2018, Azizova with 192 points held the 11th position in the Olympic rating of the World Taekwondo Federation ^[33] . In May, she took part in the European Championship in Kazan , where she managed to reach only the quarter-finals ^[8] .

In 2019, Azzova became the bronze medalist of the World Cup for the second time, losing only to the athlete from China in the semifinals. She explained her defeat by the fact that she was not properly prepared for the Chinese woman, since she had not seen her in business before ^[34] .

Image

Farida Azizova prefers to look like a young man, she almost always wears men's clothing ^[2] , behaves like a guy ^[35] , cuts her hair short and does not like to use makeup. She has been in this image since she was 10 years old ^[7] . According to her, it is so convenient for her, since the youthful style requires little time, "pants, a shirt and all." In addition, Azizova notes that this style suits her, because her physique is very rude and in the family they were all genetically broad-shouldered and looked physically strong. Than to dress in something that does not suit you and hear unpleasant words, it is better to dress in what suits you and be called a guy, Farida Azizova notes ^[35] .

According to Azizova, in her childhood she was a naughty child, had many friends among boys, played either football or "shooter", and she did not have many friends. When at 10 years old Azizova began to dress like a boy, her parents did not tell her anything, then they asked why she was dressed so, to which Azizova replied that she was so comfortable because of sports ^[7] .

Azizova shares many of her photos from training on Instagram . According to her, some, not paying attention to her name, think that she is a guy or has entered a social network under a female name ^[35] .

Hobbies

Farida Azizova's hobby is drawing ^[36] . According to her, drawing calms her nerves and distracts from thoughts about sports ^[6] . About this hobby, Azizova says:

According to Azizova, she is romantic in her heart, but most of all she loves her paintings on the military theme, which explains that in the future she wants to become a soldier or work in the police, to serve her country after sports ^[26] .

The heroes of the Olympic Games for Farida Azizova are Azerbaijani taekwondo players who represented their country at the Olympic Games - Rashad Akhmedov and Niyameddin Pashayev ^[36] .

Favorite actress - Angelina Jolie , favorite film - “Lara Croft” ^[36] .

Religion

In 2013, Azizova converted to Orthodoxy . According to Azizova herself, she didn’t tell anyone about it then, fearing that they would not understand. As the athlete notes, she did it for herself. According to Azizova, she also went to the mosque , but did not feel comfortable there, after which she came to church, thought for months, and a year later adopted Christianity. The Azizova family respected her choice and did not interfere in it ^[37] .

Farida Azizova takes an active part in promoting the fight against gender inequality in Azerbaijan and, together with the United Nations Fund for Population , the National Assembly of Youth Organizations of Azerbaijan and the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Azerbaijan, is a representative of a campaign to inform about the problem of gender inequality in sports ^[38] .

Farida Azizova herself, according to her, was also a victim of gender inequality. When she started taekwondo from an early age, her mother, Fazilya Azizova ^[39] , was against and under the psychological pressure of relatives who said that Farida didn’t need sports, that she was a girl, she had to study, and when she grew up, she needed to get married from Farida quit sports. Farida says that she understands relatives, because the sport she practices is difficult and often injured (Farida has been operated on several times), realizes that they worry about her health, and listens to the opinions of her elders, but loves taekwondo and therefore has not abandoned him . According to Farida Azizova’s BBC service in Azerbaijan, there are very few female athletes in Azerbaijani society, since many parents are against the girls playing sports professionally, which Azizova associates with the mentality . Azizova often communicates through social networks with girls whose parents are against them going in for sports. But in the same place, Azizova is against the girls disobeying their parents, and advises the girls to talk with them and get their consent, and Azizov’s parents advises to listen to the opinions of their daughters and help them find their way if they see it in sports ^{[ 38]} .

In November 2016, Azizova took part in the Taekwondo Day event organized by the National Olympic Committee of Azerbaijan ^[40] . In February 2017, a video was shot about Farida Azizova within the framework of the “Youth for a Better Future” campaign, where the athlete spoke out against gender inequality in society ^{[41] [42]} .

In addition, Farida Azizova takes an active part in campaigns to help sick children. In September 2016, she made a statement in support of 4-year-old Seljan Muradzade, suffering from leukemia ^[43] . In June 2017, she took part in a festive event for children at the Rehabilitation Center for Down Syndrome in Baku ^{[44] [45]} .

• Profile of Farida Azizova . taekwondodata.com. Date of treatment February 28, 2018.
• Farida Azizova - Olympic statistics at Sports-Reference.com