Amina Alieva's Victory: Emin Agalarov on His Daughter's Path to Championship

Granddaughter of President Ilham Aliyev and First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva, daughter of Heydar Aliyev Foundation Vice-President Leyla Aliyeva and People's Artist of Azerbaijan, entrepreneur Emin Agalarov - Amina Aliyeva - has become the world champion in kung fu.

As reported by BAKU.WS, in an exclusive interview with Media.Az, Emin Agalarov shared his emotions about his daughter's victory, talked about her path to championship, and how he supports his children in their aspirations.

- Congratulations on Amina's victory at the world kung fu championship. We are very proud of her. This is such a difficult sport for a girl. Tell us, how long has she been practicing? Who became her role model?

- In any area that my children choose, I try to support them. If you remember, Alishka (Ali Agalarov - author.) at some point got into music. And we became very involved in his musical creativity. And Amina, one and a half to two years ago, became interested in kickboxing and taekwondo. It seemed to me that she really likes it, it helps her relieve stress. And in general, sport is discipline, it's very beneficial.

A few months ago, she said that there would soon be training camps and she wanted to participate in international competitions. My first reaction was: maybe not. After all, she's a girl, I myself did boxing and understand how traumatic it can be. But she said she really likes it and wants to try. I replied that if she decides, then please go ahead, but she must understand that these are serious trainings, and it doesn't mean that you'll just go and win medals.

- And she trained intensively...

- For the last few months, she trained twice a day for 2-3 hours with a professional coach. She went to training camps in Turkey, then returned here, continued preparation, and after that went to the championship.

- ... and won gold.

- Yes, if you saw the footage, in her first and second fights, including the title one, she didn't give her opponents a chance to breathe, constantly attacking. I'm very happy and proud. Of course, it's not the Olympic Games, but it's her first personal victory. I'm very proud of her. Yesterday I met her at the airport. She was greeted by other champions, medalists, musicians... It was very important for her because she is quite modest, quiet, and not very talkative, doesn't give interviews. But yesterday was her real moment of glory, and I think she handled it well. I took her home, we sat together, and I think she will continue training. Her mother and I will support her as long as she wants to continue.

- She actually said in the interview that her next dream is to become an Olympic champion.

- To get to the Olympic Games, you need to go through all the qualifying stages and meet many requirements. I want to assure you that neither I nor her mother participated in her trip to this competition. Of course, we helped with buying tickets and organizing the trip. But it was entirely her initiative, supported by her coach. The coach mentored her, and it was exclusively her decision. She won on equal terms with everyone else, which makes me especially happy.