Turkey’s Past at the Olympics

Participating in the Olympics for the first time in its history in 1908, Turkey could not win a medal in the games held in London. Aleko Mulos was the first athlete to represent Turkey in the Olympics. The first medals in Olympic history were received in 1936, both in wrestling. Yaşar Erkan won the gold medal, while Ahmet Kireççi got the bronze medal. The medal record of Turkey's history was in London in 1948 with 12 medals, but this record was broken in 2021 with 13 this year. Turkish athletes, who showed an incredible performance in the wrestling branch of the Olympics in 1948, received 11 medals, six gold, four silver, and a bronze medal, only in the wrestling branch. Ruhi Sarialp won the remaining medal in athletics. Turkey, which has 104 medals in total, has so far won 66 in the wrestling branch alone. Wrestling is followed by weightlifting with 11 medals and Taekwondo with nine medals. Having won the most medals in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Turkey achieved an important success in its history with 13 medals.

Turkey couldn't take place the Olympics held in 1920 Antwerp, 1932 Los Angeles, and 1980 Moscow, due to ongoing wars. Apart from this, Turkey did not have any remarkable success or medals in the 1912 Stockholm, 1924 Paris, 1928 Amsterdam, and 1976 Montreal Olympics.

Halil Mutlu and Naim Süleymanoğlu are the most well-known athletes of Turkey in the Olympic games. In the weightlifting branch, both athletes excited Turkey and brought gold medals to Turkey. Having won one gold, three silver, and three bronze medals in boxing, Turkey could not show the same success in athletics and be content with a silver and two bronze medals. In addition to legends such as Halil Mutlu and Naim Süleymanoğlu, Mete Gazoz (archery) and Busenaz Sürmeneli (boxing), who has recently appeared on the scene, are promising. Both athletes made Turkey proud with gold medals in the 2020 Olympics. The Olympics with the most gold medals was the 1960 Rome Olympics with seven gold medals.