Sabina Altynbekova, a 17-year-old volleyball player from Kazakhstan, has become distraction on the court, but not for her skills. Many say she's too pretty for volleyball.
According to the International Business Times, Sabina Altynbekova's pretty volleyball looks have earned her a legion of adoring fans who have started started four different Facebook fan pages featuring the teenager and two "community" pages.
One video of the six-foot-tall Altynbekova has received more than 500,500 views while a similar video has another 300,000 views.
Her Instagram page has topped 236,000 followers and an additional 23,500 on
Twitter.
According to the fan website sabinaaltynbekova.com, the teenager's father was a skier and her mother was a track and field athlete, which explains her interest in sports.
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The Straits Times described how fans in Taipei flocked to one of Altynbekova's U19 volleyball matches earlier this month in Taiwan..
"They came in droves, undaunted by rain and heavy winds as Typhoon Matmo passed through Taiwan," the Straits Times reported. "This crowd, a group of – temporary, probably – volleyball lovers, really only had eyes for a sweet-faced, leggy player from Kazakhstan. That would be Sabina Altynbekova, 17, who has emerged as a media star from the 17th Asian Women's U19 Volleyball Championship in Taipei this month."
Her national team coach, Nurlan Sadikov, told the Tengrin News he's not so crazy about all of the attention,
according to London's Daily Mail.
"It is impossible to work like this," the coach told the Tengrin News. "The crowd behaves like there is only one player at the championship."
The Daily Mail reported that Altynbekova has tried to discourage fans from making such a fuss about her, saying that while she's surprised by all of the buzz, she wants to improve as a volleyball player.
"I was flattered at first but it's all getting a little bit much," Altynbekova said. "I want to concentrate on playing volleyball and to be famous for that, not anything else."
The International Business Times said, though, her followers and fan sites have continued to grow.
"Clearly, beauty knows no boundaries for Ms. Altynbekova," the Business Times wrote.
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