Musa Taimazov

Musa Izamutdinovich Taimazov was born on 8 April 1984 in Kyakhulay, a settlement that is part of the city of Makhachkala in Dagestan (sources variously give his birthplace as Kyakhulay, Novy Kyakhulay or Makhachkala). He was a Kumyk by ethnicity and studied at School No. 11 in Makhachkala. He started Thai boxing in Makhachkala in 1995 with his first coach Shamil Kadiev and also tried freestyle wrestling and karate. After the tenth grade he went to Surgut in western Siberia to work on construction sites and earn money for his family.

In 2004, at the age of 20, Taimazov dived from a height into a lake and broke his neck, suffering a cervical spinal cord injury that left him using a wheelchair. His first six months of rehabilitation were in Surgut, where he later said doctors did a great deal for him. Back in Dagestan he spent around six years on rehabilitation, much of it self-funded, travelling to Ukraine and back to Surgut for treatment. He said that in eleven years he had received a sanatorium voucher only three times, despite being entitled to one every year.

Taimazov left school after the tenth grade to work. As an adult he enrolled at a university in Moscow and in 2017 transferred to the physical education faculty of Dagestan State Pedagogical University (DGPU), graduating in physical culture in 2020.

In 2010 Taimazov was invited to join a wheelchair rugby team in Dagestan. In 2012 the Dagestan team won the Russian championship. In 2013 he joined the Moscow club Legion, and in 2015 he became Russian champion again with the Moscow team. He was a member of the Russian national wheelchair rugby squad (Russian Wikipedia gives 2012 to 2017). He described the sport as demanding both physical and mental endurance and said it gave his life new meaning.

Taimazov switched to Para athletics in 2017, competing in the club throw in the F51 class, coached in Makhachkala by Albert Rzaev. He won the Russian title in 2018 and joined the national team, then took silver at the 2019 Paris Open and bronze at the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships in Dubai on 10 November 2019. He won the Russian championship four times (2018 to 2021), setting Russian records along the way.

At the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, competing for the Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) team, he won gold in the men's club throw F51 on 1 September 2021 with a world record of 35.42 metres on his first throw, beating Serbia's Zeljko Dimitrijevic (35.29 m) and Slovakia's Marian Kureja (30.66 m). The previous world record of 34.71 m had been set by Dimitrijevic in June 2021. In August 2023 he improved his own world record to 36.22 metres at the "We Are Together. Sport" summer games in Cheboksary, according to RIA Dagestan.

According to Russian Wikipedia, Taimazov was divorced and had a daughter, whose name has not been made public. The Russian Paralympic Committee's Tokyo 2020 team profile described him as single and said that in his free time he enjoyed cooking meat dishes. He was registered in Moscow during his rugby years and trained there before returning to Makhachkala.

Taimazov was an outspoken advocate for an accessible environment for people with disabilities in Dagestan. In a 2016 interview with Kavpolit he criticised pavements and buildings without ramps, the lack of transport for wheelchair users to reach sports halls and the underfunding of Para sport teams, and he proposed a dedicated rehabilitation sanatorium in the republic where disabled people could do sport and support one another. He said he did not want people to help him; he wanted to be able to get around and enter any building independently.

Paralympic gold medal, men's club throw F51, Tokyo 2020 (world record 35.42 m). Bronze medal, men's club throw F51, 2019 World Para Athletics Championships, Dubai. Silver, 2019 Paris Open. Four-time Russian champion in the club throw (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021). Two-time Russian wheelchair rugby champion (2012, 2015). Order of Friendship (11 September 2021) for his great contribution to Russian sport, high sporting achievements, will to win, resilience and determination shown at the Tokyo Paralympics. Honoured Master of Sport of Russia. Master of Sport of International Class.

Taimazov featured in Dagestani television reports and documentaries, including the RGVK Dagestan programme "Amazing Highlanders" episode "I never give up. Musa Taimazov", and in interviews about accessibility and rehabilitation. He took part in master classes for young athletes, including one in Sochi with wrestler Razambek Zhamalov, and was celebrated at a public welcome ceremony in Dagestan in September 2021.

Taimazov died on 10 October 2026 at the age of 42. The acting head of Dagestan, Fyodor Shchukin, announced on Telegram that he had died after a long illness. A person close to the athlete told RIA Novosti that he had long struggled with kidney disease and died in hospital. Dagestani public figure Bulach Chankalaev wrote that he had fought long and bravely against kidney disease in a Moscow hospital and had been in a coma. The Dagestan Ministry of Sport expressed condolences on behalf of acting sports minister Sazhid Sazhidov. Funeral and burial details had not been made public at the time of writing.

Taimazov is remembered as one of Dagestan's best known Para athletes and as the first Paralympic champion and world record holder in the club throw from the republic. His journey from a spinal injury at 20 to Paralympic gold at 37 made him a symbol of resilience, and his public criticism of inaccessible streets and buildings kept the needs of wheelchair users in the regional conversation. The Dagestan Ministry of Sport said his name would remain forever in the history of Russian Paralympic sport.