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Sabina Altynbekova, a 17-year-old player on Kazakhstan's Junior Women's National volleyball team, is apparently "too beautiful" for her own good. The teen, who has "270,000 Instagram followers, 200,000 Facebook fans and a slew of YouTube homages dedicated to her best moments on the court," has drawn the anger of her coach and teammates—all thanks to her good looks. "It is impossible to work like this," [coach] Nurlan Sadikov said. "The crowd behaves like there is only one player at the championship."
Lavishing attention on really, really ridiculously good-looking athletes is common practice; blaming and possibly banishing the player from competition is not. If the Tom Bradys and David Beckhams of the world can somehow manage to overcome the hurdle that is their beautiful face, shouldn't this player be allowed to do the same?—Lauren Berger
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