Ataman Hotel - Olimpic Games and Turkey

The sports world celebrated the centenary of the modern Olympic Games four years ago in Atlanta, and with the Sidney 2000 Games, this sporting extravaganza will be 104 years of age.Since the Olympic Games were revived in Athens in 1896, 23 Olympics have actually taken place, three being cancelled due to World War I and II - Berlin 1916, Tokyo 1940 and London 1944. Yet these are nevertheless counted, which is why Sidney 2000 is officially be described as the 27th Olympic Games.Turkish athletes have participated in 17 of the 23 events over the past 104 years, so setting the Turkish flag flying at this peerless event. The Turkish National Olympic Committee will mark its 89th year under the auspices of the International Olympic Committee, and is proud to be the 13th country to have established a national Olympic committee. With the proclamation of constitutional rule in 1908, the right to form associations was granted and the Ottoman Olympic Association was established by Selim SirriTarcan.The association immediately applied to the International Olympic Committee for membership of the games, which was granted in 1911.Turkish athletes had been interested in the Olympics since the beginning. When the first games were held in Athens in 1896, a Turkish grease wrestler Koc Mehmet went to Athens to participate in the games, but was turned down since he did not possess any official certification.

Koc Mehmet might not have been able to wrestle in Athens, but he has still won immortality as the first Turkish sportsman to try to enter the Olympics.Aleko Mulos, a gymnast from Kurtuluswho wrote his name in the Olympic Register for the London Olympics in 1908, became the first sportsman to represent the star and crescent flag. He participated upon the invitation of Baron Pierre de Coubert, founder of the modern Olympics, for whom Mulos served as guide during the barn’ss stay in Istanbul. Since then Turkish athletes have won thirty gold, sixteen silver and thirteen bronze medals - a total of 59 altogether. This puts Turkey in 34th place among 119 countries overall, and in 28th place where gold medals are concerned.Naim Suleymanoglu won three gold medals at three successive Olympics (1988 Seul, 1992 Barcelona, and 1996), becoming not only a Turkish record holder, but the first and only weight-lifter to win three gold medals in succession in the history of the games. This year Naim is determined to surpass his own record at the Sidney Olympics.

Mustafa Dagistanliand Mithat Bayrak won two gold medals each at two Olympic Games, coming in second in the gold medal stakes to Naim Suleymanoglu. Hamit Kaplan became the first Turkish athlete to win three medals (a gold, silver and bronze).Turkey is enthusiastic to host the Olympic Games, confident in its right to do so and of making the event a complete success. The Istanbul 2000 campaign was the first step in this direction, although Turkey’s bid failed. However, we are pursuing the matter with faith and determination. Turkey’s parliament was the first in the world to pass legislation concerning the staging of the Olympic Games in Istanbul in the 2000s.

At this yea’su Olympic Games in Sidney, Australia, to be held between 15 September and 1 October, Turkey will be represented in athletics, boxing, wrestling, weight-lifting, archery, judo, target shooting, swimming, sailing and tekwando by an estimated 56 athletes. They will strive to win Olympic medals, the most prized of any in the sporting world.Turkey’s greatest hopes lie not only in wrestling, a national sport practised for many centuries,but in weight-lifting and boxing, in which Turkish contenders enjoy high world standing and already have medals to their credit. Another area in which Turkey reckons to have a good chance is archery, having missed medals by a hai’ss breadth at the Atlanta Olympics and won the European championship just two months ago. Turkey also has aspirations in judo, for which the country won a medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, and in tekwando, which is being contested as an Olympic sport for the first time ever. The coutry’se athletes and swimmers have plenty of enthusiasm and will strive to do their best. Our sailors, too, will be competing for medals in waters at almost the opposite end of the globe. The Turkish teams will be flying to Sidney by a special THY flight on 2 September 2000, and we wish them the best of luck.

By Cem ATABEYOGLU

Source: Skylife 08/2000