Track and field athlete Yasmin Begalinova (hay_nyash) from the East Kazakhstan region has unexpectedly become a viral star on foreign social media. A photo of the girl from a high jump competition, in which she is captured with an impressive hairstyle, spread across Threads and Instagram within hours. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
On February 19, 2026, Begalinova became the silver medalist of the Kazakhstan Junior Championship U18/U20 in athletics. She herself spoke about herself in her post on Threads, which sparked a wave of attention.
"I live in Kazakhstan and I am Kazakh. I love my homeland very much. I do athletics, my discipline is high jump. Thank you all for your good wishes and support in my sport! I will continue to work hard, achieve success and go towards my goals," the athlete wrote.
The photos from the competition, where sportswear is combined with a bright hairstyle, delighted the foreign audience. In the comments, foreign users jokingly wrote that they are ready to move to Kazakhstan. Around Begalinova's image, users also began to draw fan art, comparing her hairstyle to characters from popular video games such as Tracer from Overwatch or the Final Fantasy series.