As the 2020 summer Olympics in Japan's capital approach, participants from Turkey will seek to add to the country's total of 91 medals, won by 73 athletes.
The 32nd Summer Olympic Games, which should have been held last year under normal conditions but were postponed to this year due to coronavirus pandemic, are set to start on July 23 and run until Aug. 8 in Tokyo.
Turkey will pursue medals with 108 athletes participating in 18 different branches in the games.
The Tokyo Olympic Games will be the 23rd organization with Turkey participating.
Turkey has won 39 gold, 25 silver, and 27 bronze in these organizations.
- First medal won in wrestling
Turkey won their first medal in Olympic history in wrestling.
Turkish athletes, unable to win any medals in the first four Olympics they took part in, experienced their first medal pride at the 1936 Berlin games.
National wrestler Ahmet Kirecci became the first athlete to take the podium on behalf of Turkey with the bronze.
Wrestling was also the branch that won Turkey its first gold medal in history during those games in 1936.
Wrestler Yasar Erkan achieved another success by winning the gold in the 61-kilo freestyle.
- First medal for women in 1992
A Turkish female athlete won an Olympic medal for the first time in 1992.
Hulya Senyurt took home the bronze for Turkey in judo.
The first gold medal to go to a Turkish female athlete was in the 2004 summer Olympics.
Nurcan Taylan placed 1st in weightlifting at the games held in Athens, making history as Turkey's first woman gold medalist.
- Most successful branch: Wrestling
Turkey's most successful branch in the Olympics is wrestling.
Wrestlers won 63 of the 91 medals won by Turkish athletes.
They succeeded in bringing home 29 gold, 18 silver, and 16 bronze medals for Turkey.
Also, Turkish athletes won 11 medals in weightlifting, seven in taekwondo, five in boxing, three in athletics, and two in judo.
- Gold-winning streak of Naim Suleymanoglu, Halil Mutlu
Turkish weightlifters Naim Suleymanoglu and Halil Mutlu, who won three gold medals each, went down in history as the athletes who took the podium the most.
Suleymanoglu took his place at the top three times in a row in 1988 Seoul, 1992 Barcelona, and 1996 Atlanta, writing his name in both Turkish and world sports history in golden letters.
Mutlu repeated Suleymanoglu's success, winning gold medals in the 1996 Atlanta, 2000 Sydney, and 2004 Athens games.
- 85 medals from men, six from women
Female Turkish athletes have won six Olympic medals, while their male counterparts won 85 of the country's total.
Turkish female athletes won one gold, two silver and three bronze medals in total.
Nurcan Taylan (weightlifting-gold), Azize Tanrikulu (taekwondo-silver), Nur Tatar (taekwondo-silver-bronze), Hulya Senyurt (judo-bronze), and Hamide Tosun (taekwondo-bronze) received the medals.
Throughout the country's history, 73 of its athletes experienced the joy of medal-winning on behalf of Turkey in the Olympics.
- Turkey's pride with Olympic medals
The Turkish athletes who won medals for Turkey in the Olympic Games and their branches are as follows:
Gold medals (39):
*Writing by Selcuk bugra Gokalp in Ankara
