By Vestnik Kavkaza
On June 8 at the airport "Aerograd Kolomna" Azerbaijani Paralympians Kamal Mammadov and Vusala Karimova performed a parachute jump. The jump was initiated by the National Paralympic Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the framework of the events dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the birth of Heydar Aliyev. Then, the Embassy of Azerbaijan held a meeting with the Paralympians. It was attended by the President of the National Paralympic Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilgar Rahimov, First Vice-President of the National Paralympic Committee Natick Gasimov and AYOR activists.
Ilgar Rahimov, President of the National Paralympic Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan, said at the ceremony in the embassy: “Azerbaijan this year carried out a series of events dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the birth of our former president Heydar Aliyev. And we, the Paralympic Committee, which was created by his promotion in 1996, and Heydar Aliyev spent a lot of energy to our development helping our disabled people - and we are committed today conducting various activities to honor this great man. So far we have held a lot of activities. We had a great first Paralympic festival in Heydar Aliyev’s native land, in Nakhichevan. We held in Baku for the first time a large international dance festival in wheelchairs, and 28 athletes from eight countries participated in it. The same people for the first time in the world held an international flash mob in the streets of Baku, which was met with a great interest. And as one of the activities our Paralympians proposed parachute jumps. However, one of our Paralympians has such experience, for him it was the third jump. Othermembers made their first jump.”
He noted that Azerbaijan has participated in the Paralympic Games since 1996. “We have very good relations with the Russian Paralympic Committee. Last time our athletes took part in the London Paralympics, won 12 medals, four of them were gold. Among the 166 countries Azerbaijan took the 27th place. If you take the statistics in the CIS, we are fourth after Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. This event nvolved a total of 21 Paralympic athletes from Azerbaijan, 19 of which took the medals. We have participated in four sports events.
If we talk about our plans, then, of course, plans are that we have to very seriously prepare for the Brazilian Paralympic Games, to increase the composition of the team and the number of sports in which we participate,” Ilgar Rahimov emphasized.
Paralympian Kamal Mammadov said that he represented the Paralympic team of Azerbaijan. “We are engaged in professional sports. Parachute sport is not included in professional sports among Paralympians. But by all these jumps, we want to show that for us, the people with disabilities, no sport is a barrier. You may show yourself in any sport.
I made the first jump in Belarus, the second - in Ukraine, now - in Russia. Next I’ll go to Kazakhstan, Latvia. Travelling around all countries, we jump with a parachute. It gives a lot of positive feedback and incentive for other people with disabilities, who have just received their injuries and believe that life is over. That is my appeal to them: guys, my life began when I sat in the wheelchair. It has become much more beautiful and colorful than before,” the Azerbaijani athlete concluded.
