An Olympic Gold Medalist Archer: Mete Gazoz

The first gold medalist winner of Turkey at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Mete Gazoz is a national archer of Turkey. He brought tears into the eyes of Turkish people with his achievement. All the people around the country sent support messages to the 22-year-old archer. He is known as one of the most humble and successful sportsmen of Turkey today.

Life

Born on the 8th of June, 1999, he began his career when he was still a little child as his father says ''he pulls the arrow since he was 3, and throw it since he was 5''. He even did swimming, painting, played basketball, and piano to improve his archery skills. His first achievement was at World Youth Archery Championship in 2013 with a silver medal. Then, in the 2015 Europe Games, Gazoz represented Turkey and was eliminated in the first round. Later he joined the 2016 Youth Archery Championship and got a silver medal. When he was 17, he joined Rio Olympics, and he was the youngest attendant from Turkey. He was eliminated in the last 32, but he got support messages from Arda Turan, the national team footballer of Turkey, and many more from Turkey. After Rio Olympics, his star started to shine. In 2017, he came third in the Youth Archery Championship with Yasemin Ecem Anagöz and got a gold medal in Mediterranean Games. He earned four gold medals at the fourth leg of the 2018 World Cup in Berlin. In the World Archery Federation (WA) poll, he was named the best athlete of 2018 in the men's classic bow. Furthermore, he was also named the Best Breakthrough Athlete of the Year by the federation jury. In 2019, Gazoz broke the junior world and senior European records by coming in 1st place at Europe Grand Prix 2019.

Tokyo Olympics 2020

In interviews, Gazoz always said he was going to earn a gold medal. He did by winning against his Italian rival Mauro Nespoli. "Talent gets you so far, then it's hard work,'' Gazoz said in an interview. Famous people such as Tarkan, Haluk Levent, and Ilyas Salman sent their supports to the young archer Mete Gazoz after his success at the Tokyo Olympics. At the time he won the gold medal, there were ongoing wildfires in Turkey. Many people said he was a blessing on such bad days.

Currently, Mete Gazoz is preparing for the upcoming tournaments and looking up to achieving more. He is still so young, and there will be many more words to write about him.