Turkish athletes won 13 medals in various sports at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, Turkey’s most successful games ever, Deutsche Well Turkish service reported on Monday.
Turkey took two gold, two silver and nine bronze medals, breaking its record for number of medals won in a single Olympic Games.
Mete Gazoz won a gold in men’s individual archery and Busenaz Sürmeneli in women’s welterweight (64-69kg) boxing.
The two silver medals were secured by Buse Naz Çakıroğlu in women’s flyweight (48-51kg) boxing and Eray Şamdan in men’s kumite (-67kg) karate.
The bronze medalists were Hakan Reçber (men’s 68kg) and Hatice Kübra İlgün (women’s 57kg) in taekwondo; Rıza Kayaalp (men’s Greco-Roman 130kg), Yasemin Adar (women’s freestyle 76kg) and Taha Akgül (men’s freestyle 125kg) in wrestling; Ferhat Arıcan (men’s parallel bars) in artistic gymnastics; and Ali Sofuoğlu (men’s kata) and Merve Çoban (women’s kumite 61kg) in karate.
Tokyo 2020 was a monumental success for Turkey as its athletes managed to take medals in artistic gymnastics, archery and karate for the first time in the Olympics.
Turkey’s female athletes were also highly successful as they earned five medals at Tokyo 2020, compared to a total of five medals in the Olympic games held between 1908 and 2016. Sürmeneli made history by becoming first Turkish female boxer to win a gold medal, while Adar was the first-ever Turkish female wrestler to win a medal.
Turkey was represented by a total of 108 atheletes — 58 men and 50 women — in 18 fields of sports.
As Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games came to a close, Thomas Bach, the head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), described it as one of the most challenging Olympic adventures due to the global coronavirus pandemic.
Due to the pandemic, the games were postponed for one year and held without spectators.
Around 11,000 athletes attended the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, breaking 17 world records. The US team came first with 39 gold medals, 41 silver medals and 33 bronze medals, followed by China with 38 gold medals, 32 silver medals and 18 bronze medals. The host Japan came third with 27 gold medals, 14 silver medals and 17 bronze medals.
