,  By  T-VINE

Paris Olympics: fewer medals for Team Türkiye but many memorable moments

The sun has set on another Summer Olympics, with the Paris Games full of incredible sporting performances, new records and sporting icons, and several controversies, including France’s hijab ban on its own Muslim athletes, its ambitious and at times bizarre Opening Ceremony, and the gender row involving two female boxers.

For Türkiye, the promise of an even better medal haul than their record-breaking total at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics was not to be, although there were lots of exceptional performances.

The country ended the 2024 Olympics in 64th position on the Medals Table – 29 places lower than in Tokyo – with Turkish athletes winning a total of eight medals: three silver and five bronze.

The Turks had bagged 13 medals in Tokyo: two gold, two silver and nine bronze, which had taken  them to 35th in the Medals Table three years ago (the 2020 Games were held in 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic).

There were no golds for Türkiye in Paris. The first of their three silvers were courtesy of Yusuf Dikeç and Şevval İlayda Tarhan (pictured top, posing with their silver medals by the Eiffel Tower) who won the country’s first ever shooting Olympic medal in the Mixed 10 m Air Pistol event.

Two female boxers, Hatice Akbaş (54 kg) and Buse Naz Çakıroğlu (50 kg) took silver medals as runners up in their respective weights. For flyweight Çakıroğlu, this was her second silver in consecutive Olympic games.

Türkiye’s five bronze medals came in four different sports.

While there was no repeat of the individual gold for Mete Gazoz, he was part of the Men’s Archery team also comprising Berkim Tümer, and Abdullah Yıldırmış that won bronze.

Turkish Men’s Archery Team Mete Gazoz, Abdullah Yıldırmış and Ulaş Berkim posing with bronze medals by the Eiffel Tower in Paris, 31 July 2024. Photo via Team Turkiye/X

 

There was a bronze a piece for third-placed wrestlers Buse Tosun Çavuşoğlu in the Women’s 68 kg and legend Taha Akgül in the Men’s freestyle 125 kg. After the competition, Akgül announced his retirement from the sport, having previously won Olympic, World and European gold during his14-year professional career.

There were bronze medals too for boxer Esra Yıldız in the women’s 57 kg division, and Nafia Kuş in the women’s +67 kg Taekwondo.

Legendary Turkish wrestler Taha Akgül announces retirement

Turkish athletes just outside the medals

The performance of several other Turkish athletes was agonisingly just outside the medal positions. Türkiye came fourth in two sports, while a further eight Turkish athletes finished their competitions in fifth place.

There was disappointment for the Türkiye Women’s Volleyball team who came through same epic games on their way to the semi-finals, where they lost to eventual Olympic Champions Italy 3-0. The Sultans of the Net then lost 3-1 to Brazil in the bronze match game. However, their fourth-place finish was the highest ever ranking for a Turkish women’s volleyball team at an Olympic Games.

Weightlifter Muhammed Furkan Özbek was also just outside the medals in the Men’s 73 kg. He had come third in the Clean and Jerk, but could only muster seventh in the Snatch, leaving him fourth overall.

Ersu Şaşma came fifth in the Men’s Pole Vault final. Former Olympic Champion welterweight boxer Busenaz Sürmeneli, and two Turkish judokas, Salih Yıldız in the Men’s 60 kg category and Kayra Özdemir in the Women’s +78 kg category, also all came fifth in their sports.

Turkish artistic gymnasts Adem Asil (Rings), the 2022 World Champion, and Ferhat Arıcan (Parallel Bars), who won a bronze medal in Tokyo, had high hopes ahead of Paris, but both ended up finishing fifth in their respective disciplines.

Teen swimming sensation Kuzey Tunçelli came fifth in the final of the Men’s 1500 m freestyle event – the first time Türkiye had a person in the final of an Olympic swimming event. Merve Kavurat also came fifth in the Women’s 49 kg Taekwondo.

A total of 101 athletes from Türkiye competed in 18 different sports in Paris, with Yusuf Dikeç becoming one of the unexpected icons of the Games with his super-cool pose while shooting that went viral and was emulated by many other athletes, and high jumper Buse Savaşkan creating a huge sense of pride among Turkish Cypriots after reaching the final of her sport.

The Paris Olympics in numbers

The Paris 2024 Olympic and the yet to come Paralympic Games will be the biggest sporting events ever organised in France.

The Olympic Games officially took place from 26 July to 11 August 2024, although some sports (handball, football and rugby) began a few days earlier on 24 July.

Some 10,500 athletes competed in 329 different competitions from 32 different sports during the 19 days of the Olympics. There were also 20 mixed-gender medal events in Paris.

Buse Naz Çakıroğlu after getting through to quarterfinal of the Women’s 50kg Boxing in Paris, 01 Aug. 2024. Photo via Team Turkiye/X

 

The events were held in 35 different venues, and not all were in the French capital. The cities of Lyon, Saint-Etienne, Nice, Bordeaux, Nantes and Marseille were also Olympic sites in 2024, while surfing was held on the other side of the world in Tahiti.

Some 10 million tickets were available to watch the Games, the vast majority – 9.5 million – were told to the public.

Most athletes belonged to one of 206 National Olympic Committees (NOCs), but there was also the IOC Refugee Olympic Team and the Individual Neutral Athletes (AINs) – the latter for athletes from Russia and Belarus. Four NOCs – Belize, Liechtenstein, Nauru and Somalia – sent  just one athlete to compete in the games.

Athletes from 91 NOCs as well as those from the AINs and the IOC Refugee Olympic Team won medals in Paris.

On the sporting records front, 32 world records were broken in 8 disciplines, while there were 125 new Olympic records in 10 disciplines.

A few other striking statistics: the Paris Games generated 350,000 hours of television broadcast, covered by 20,000 accredited journalists.

There were some 45,000 volunteers helping in a variety of roles and an incredible 600,000+ meals served at the Athletes’ Village every day!

And finally, the 5,084 Olympic medals were produced by using 18 grammes of iron from the Eiffel Tower.

Türkiye at Paris Paralympic Games

The Paralympic Games are also in Paris and will start later this month, on 28 August, and run until Sunday 8 September.

Türkiye will have 93 athletes participating in 15 different sports at this year’s Paralympic Games.