Turkey eyes its best Olympics ever

31/07/2008

Turkey's Olympic team hopes to be among the top 20 countries at the end of the Beijing Games. Weightlifting, wrestling and taekwondo hold the most promise for gold.

By Ayhan Simsek for Southeast European Times -- 31/07/08

Turkish weightlifter Nurcan Taylan is one of her country's hopes for gold in Beijing. [Getty Images]

Turkey is pinning medal hopes on its world champion wrestlers, weightlifters and taekwondo practitioners during the Beijing Olympics. "I think we can win five gold, five silver and five bronze medals and finish ... among the top 20 countries," Youth and Sports Directorate head Mehmet Atalay said.

At the 2004 Games in Athens, the 66-member Turkish team won ten medals: three golds in weightlifting, three silver medals in wrestling, taekwondo and boxing, and four bronze medals in other disciplines. It ranked 22nd at the end of the Olympiad.

Turkey's team for Beijing has a total of 68 athletes in 12 different disciplines. Ten female and six male athletes will seek medals in track and field. Elvan Abeylegesse, who won a silver medal in the 2007 world championship in the 10,000m race, will compete for a medal in the 5,000m in Beijing.

Turkish weightlifting champion Naim Suleymanoglu -- "Pocket Hercules" -- helped to give the country a name in the Olympics. The 145cm athlete won three Olympic gold medals (1988, 1992, 1996), seven world championships and six European championships and holds 46 world records.

Now, two promising weightlifters are continuing his tradition: Taner Sagır, who won the gold medal in the 77kg category, in Athens, and Nurcan Taylan, who took gold in the women's 48kg category that year. The two are again seeking gold in Beijing.

Turkey also has high hopes for its 13 wrestlers. Wrestling has been an important sport for Turkey, since the 1936 Berlin Games, when Yasar Erkan won the first gold medal for Turkey. Since then dozens of Turkish wrestlers have won Olympic medals.

In taekwondo, Bahri and Azize Tanrikulu, who are brother and sister, hope to add Olympic gold medals to their collections. Bahri took silver in the men's 80kg category in Athens. Azize won a gold medal in the women's 63kg category at the European championships in 2005.

One of the surprise names on Turkey's Olympic team is 14-year-old swimmer Ediz Yildirimer -- the youngest athlete in Turkey's Olympic history. He placed first in the 1,5000m freestyle in the world championship this year in his age group. "It will be a great experience for me. My real aim is to get a [medal] in the 2012 Olympic Games," Yildirimer said.

Turkey's hopes are for more than a good Olympic performance -- a solid performance will reflect well on the country as a whole. Although Istanbul missed the chance to host the 2008 Olympic Games, it is eager to host the Olympiad in 2020.

This content was commissioned for SETimes.com