Track and Field: Warrior on the floor

Arkadiy Mkrtychyan may be thriving in Idaho now, but it hasn’t always been that way. Mkrtychyan said he came long way to headline for the Idaho basketball team, both physically and mentally.

“I was born in a little country Turkmenistan and my parents moved to Moscow, Russia when I was six,” Mkrtychyan said.

Like many kids, Mkrtychyan was heavily influenced by the athletic background of his parents. Mkrtychyan said his initial experience with athletics was influenced by his father, but it was his mother who brought him into basketball.

“I didn’t play basketball back then,” Mkrtychyan said of his early years abroad. “I was doing Judo because my dad used to be national coach for Judo and my mom…