Silver medalist of the World Weightlifting Championships Almas Uteshov spoke about his life after sport in an interview with the YouTube channel "Uaqyt Körsetedi".
According to "Golos Naroda", Uteshov now works as a security guard in Almaty. The athlete reported that after many years of training, his health has suffered. At the same time, he feels as though the country used him and then discarded him.
"When you are on the podium, everyone applauds. But make one mistake, and everyone immediately starts to hate you. I cannot understand that. I did everything I could. It is no easy feat to lift 230 kilograms. They say 'doping', but such a weight is not simply lifted over your head. I lifted it. Now I have a hernia in four places on my spine. What can I say? I love my people, I am proud to be Kazakh. But if you fail, you become unwanted by everyone. Unable to bear the humiliation, Vladimir Sedov took his own life. Albert Linder also left us too early. In its time, the state took advantage of us. We raised the country's flag, and then we became nobodies. There is nothing left of my spine, nothing left of my knee either.", the athlete said.
Uteshov also stated that he receives no compensation from the state. He noted that he would gladly work as a coach at a sports school, but so far no such offers have been made.
At the same time, the weightlifter spoke about corrupt schemes in sport and confessed to taking banned substances.
"There is no such medicine as doping. Even if you take aspirin, it counts as doping. But they also injected us with testosterone and other substances. Our ministry makes deals with those who carry out doping tests. It is all about money. When it comes to testing, they don't test us, they test 'doubles'. My 'double' was my younger brother Aidos. He took the test, pretending to be me, Almas Uteshov. Ilya Ilyin also has a brother - Alexei, who took tests instead of him. In the end, they remain clean. This is all corruption.", he said.
Furthermore, Almas Uteshov said that he turned down an offer to work as a coach in the USA.
It has become known that the former athlete has a debt of 10 million tenge. It is reported that the bank may repossess the house he put up as collateral.
"When I became the silver medalist of the World Championships, I was given a three-bedroom flat in Kyzylorda. And that was it. In my time, I was invited to America to work as a coach with a salary of 20 thousand dollars a month. I refused. I don't understand why the authorities don't use the potential of talented citizens. It is not my fault. I am ready to work. Previously, at the Academy of Sports and Tourism and the Republican Sports College, I taught weightlifting to young people. But I left the job. I have a loan of 10 million tenge. I mortgaged my house in the village to get the loan, and today the bank is going to seize the property. But let them seize it, I want to close this loan.", he admitted.