Kazakh volleyballer Sabina Altynbekova continues to captivate fans and media outlets in Taiwan and around Asia, with two major Taiwanese weekly news magazines recently publishing special features on her, packed with photos and updates on the 17-year-old athlete.
Graphic artists in Taiwan, Japan, China and Indonesia have produced cartoon portraits of the volleyballer, with some tagged as “Sabina Altynbekova Anime Character” for netizens to download as wallpaper for computers and smartphones.
Entrepreneurs in the region have also been quick to cash in on her popularity by coming out with fun apps, T-shirts and other merchandise featuring pictures of Altynbekova, while a Taiwanese toy company is reportedly ready to produce “Sabina” dolls for collectors.
Photo by Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
It is doubtful if Altynbekova has given her consent to these merchandising products, or if she will receive a cent from these business schemes.
Nevertheless, that has not deterred entrepreneurs and companies from taking advantage of her popularity and the voracious appetite of readers hungry for information on the 1.82m teenager with a long ponytail and model good looks.
The Chinese-language China Times Weekly magazine ran a special feature on her in last week’s issue, and as a bonus for readers, it came with a two-page photo layout of Altynbekova in her No. 20 uniform in action on the court.
The article was titled “The Sabina Craze — She has conquered China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines,” (莎來瘋–攻陷中日韓越馬菲). In the photo spread, the sub-headline reads: “Sabina has the electrifying charm to enthrall 300,000 fans,” referring to the number of people now following her on Instagram.
The article, with six photos of her, said that fans in Taiwan created “the Sabina phenomenon,” which is still stoking fire around the globe, and now hundreds of thousands of young people in Asia are fervently discussing the athlete, following her whereabouts and her activities on the Internet.
Not to be outdone, Next Magazine, another Chinese-language news weekly in Taiwan, came out with its own special feature on her this week, which came with seven photos of her in action during an international tournament in Taipei.
The Next Magazine report gave updates on her growing fame in Asia and reported the commercial offers she is still receiving, with the article headlined “Japanese companies will pay top price to entice Sabina to agree to a sexy photo album.”
Even though the 17-year-old and her parents have turned down all the offers so far, and she is preparing to attend university to study law this autumn, it seems that enterprising merchants and the entertainment industry in Japan and Taiwan will not take no for an answer.
She has apparently made up her mind on her future.
“I am not into modeling... I am an athlete and a fighter in my heart. I cannot imagine myself anywhere besides volleyball,” she said in an interview with Kazakhstan’s mainstream TengrinewsTV on Wednesday.
“As for beauty, I do not really know. I keep telling everyone that I am just a simple Kazakh girl,” she told the interviewer.
The report said she dreams only of volleyball and hopes to bring Kazakhstan’s international standing in volleyball to a higher level.
“Despite all the attention she receives, Sabina keeps close relations with her teammates,” it said.
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