Kazakhstan at the 2016 Summer Olympics

Kazakhstan at the 2016 Summer Olympics
IOC code	KAZ
NOC	National Olympic Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan
Website	www.olympic.kz (in Kazakh, Russian, and English)
in Rio de Janeiro
Competitors	104 in 17 sports
Flag bearer	Ruslan Zhaparov[1]
Medals Ranked 30th	Gold 2 Silver 5 Bronze 10 Total 17
Summer Olympics appearances (overview)
1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020 2024
Other related appearances
Russian Empire (1900–1912)  Soviet Union (1952–1988)  Unified Team (1992)

Kazakhstan competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. It was the nation's sixth consecutive appearance at the Summer Olympics in the post-Soviet era. The National Olympic Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan fielded a roster of 104 athletes, 55 men and 49 women, to compete across seventeen different sports at these Games, the smallest Summer Olympic team since the nation's debut in Atlanta 1996.^[2] Moreover, Kazakhstan did not send teams in any of the team sports for the first time in twenty years. Track and field accounted for the largest number of athletes on the Kazakh squad, with 25 entries. There was a single competitor each in slalom canoeing, track cycling, fencing, and table tennis (for the first time after an eight-year absence).

Four of the nation's Olympic medalists from London 2012 returned, defending triple jump champion Olga Rypakova, Russian-born wrestling veteran Guzel Manyurova, and boxers Adilbek Niyazymbetov (light heavyweight) and Ivan Dychko (super heavyweight). Triple jumper and 2006 Asian Games runner-up Roman Valiyev was the most experience Kazakh athlete, participating in his fourth Games. Along with Rypakova and Manyurova, six more athletes also made their third Olympic appearance, including boxing quarterfinalist Birzhan Zhakypov in the men's light flyweight division, and sprint kayaker Natalya Sergeyeva (aged 40), the oldest athlete of the roster. Heavyweight taekwondo fighter Ruslan Zhaparov was nominated by the committee to carry the Kazakh flag at the opening ceremony.^[1][3]

Kazakhstan returned home from Rio de Janeiro with 18 medals (three golds, five silver, and ten bronze), marking its most successful outcome in Summer Olympic history.^[4] As expected, most of the medals were distributed to the Kazakh athletes in both boxing and weightlifting, including a gold each from Youth Olympian Nijat Rahimov (men's 77 kg) and welterweight boxer Daniyar Yeleussinov.^[5][6] The remaining gold medal, however, went to swimmer Dmitriy Balandin, who surprisingly outlasted the favorites from the outside in the men's 200 m breaststroke to hand the Kazakhs their historic first Olympic swimming title.^[7]

Apart from the winners, other medalists also included fellow boxers Niyazymbetov and Dychko, who managed to repeat their London 2012 feats in their respective weight divisions; Rypakova, who scored another medal with a bronze in the women's triple jump, bowing out of her title defense to Colombia's Caterine Ibargüen; Manyurova, who wrestled her way towards a runner-up finish in the women's 75 kg, adding a silver to her career hardware of three medals; and weightlifter Denis Ulanov, who received the bronze in the men's 85 kg, following the disqualification of Romania's Gabriel Sîncrăian over a doping offense.^[4][8]