Turkey

History

Turkey made its first Summer Olympic appearance in 1908 and has competed in most Olympics since. The nation was banned from competing in 1920 due to its involvement in World War I, they missed the 1932 Olympic and in 1980 they participated in the United States led boycott. Turkey sends a large delegation to compete with around 100 athletes competing at the last two Olympics. The athletes compete in a variety of sports with athletics, boxing, judo, taekwondo, weightlifting and wrestling being well represented.

Turkey won its first Olympic medal in 1936 and has won at least one medal since 1984. The nation has won around 93 medals across 6 sports with wrestling, weightlifting, taekwondo and boxing being the most successful. The most successful athletes are wrestler Hamit Kaplan and weightlifters Halil Mutlu and Naim Suleymanoglu whom all won three medals each. Kaplan won a gold, silver and bronze in the men’s freestyle heavyweight at the 1956, 1960 and 1964 Olympics respectively. Mutlu won three gold medals at the 1996 (-54kg), 2000 (-56kg) and 2004 (-56kg) Olympics as did Suleymanoglu whom completed his trio at the 1988 (-60kg), 1992 (-60kg) and 1996 (-64kg) Olympics. In 2016 Turkey won 8 medals.

Qualified Quotas

Athletics

Men’s Events

Event Qualifying Athletes Selected Athletes
Men’s 200m Ramil Guliyev
Men’s 400m Hurdles Yasmani Copello
Men’s 20km Walk Salih Korkmaz
Men’s Marathon Kaan Kigen Ozbilen
Polat Arikan
Mert Girmalegesse
Men’s Triple Jump Necati Er
Men’s Hammer Throw Ozkan Baltaci

Women’s Events

Event Qualifying Athletes Selected Athletes
Women’s 5000m Yasemin Can
Women’s 10000m Yasemin Can
Women’s 20km Walk Meryem Bekmez
Women’s Javelin Throw Eda Tugsuz

Gymnastics

Event Qualifying Athletes Selected Athletes
Men’s Artistic Individual Events
(1) (2)		 Ferhat Arican
Ibrahim Colak
Women’s Artistic Individual Events Nazli Savranbasi

Sailing

Event Qualifying Athletes Selected Athletes
Women’s RS:X Dilara Uralp
Women’s Laser Radial Nazli Donertas
Men’s Finn Alican Kaynar
Men’s 470 Deniz Cinar
Ates Cinar

Shooting

Event Qualifying Athletes Selected Athletes
Men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Ozgur Varlik
Men’s 10m Air Pistol Ismail Keles
Yusuf Dikec

Swimming

Men’s Events

Event Qualifying Athletes Selected Athletes
Men’s 100m Breaststroke Berkay Ogretir

Women’s Events

Event Qualifying Athletes Selected Athletes
Women’s 800m Freestyle Beril Bocekler
Women’s 1500m Freestyle Beril Bocekler
Women’s 200m Individual Medley Viktoria Gunes

Wrestling

Event Qualifying Athletes Selected Athletes
Men’s Freestyle -57kg Suleyman Atli
Men’s Freestyle -125kg Taha Akgul
Men’s Greco-Roman -97kg Cenk Ildem
Men’s Greco-Roman -130kg Riza Kayaalp