Hasan Cucuk/TR724
Two days ago, while speaking at the Football Academy and Trophy Square of ‘its little club’ Başakşehir, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey said, “We are slowly reaping the fruits of our investments in sports.” A man who has been in power for 22 years, and a ‘one-man ruler’ for the last 10 years, should have given these words some thought. Of course, his words were not meant for those who think but for those who believe in whatever he says. When his speech was filled with numbers, his supporters exclaimed, “Look at all that’s been done!” Yet, the other side of the coin is very different. The most recent example is the 2024 Paris Olympics. Turkey was a mess. For the first time in 40 years, we finished an Olympics without a gold medal.
We participated in the Olympics with 102 athletes in 18 sports and left without a gold medal. Turkish athletes won 3 silver and 5 bronze medals. Şevval İlayda Tarhan and Yusuf Dikeç, who competed in the 10-meter air pistol mixed team category and won a silver medal, earned Turkey’s first medal in shooting in Olympic history. The other two silver medals came from boxing. Buse Naz Çakıroğlu in the 50 kg category and Hatice Akbaş in the 54 kg category lost in the finals and had to settle for silver. In the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, our athletes won a total of 13 medals, including 2 gold, 2 silver, and 9 bronze.
What remains from Paris? The only answer to this question is probably: “The Yusuf Dikeç stance.” His style and stance brought Yusuf Dikeç worldwide fame. His posture with his hand in his pocket during the shooting and his refusal to use accessories that could give an advantage made him stand out. But over time, these things will be forgotten. Only those who win gold medals remain remembered.
Turkey’s Olympic success was long limited to wrestling. We experienced our golden years in wrestling, which we define as our ‘ancestral sport,’ in the 1948 London and 1960 Rome Olympics. We returned from London with 6 gold medals and from Rome with 7 golds. Legends of Turkish wrestling such as Gazanfer Bilge, Yaşar Doğu, Celal Atik, Tevfik Kış, and Mustafa Dağıstanlı were athletes who crowned their world and European championships with Olympic success.
Turkey, which won its first gold medal in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, returned empty-handed 40 years later from the 1976 Montreal Olympics. You may remember the scene from the movie The Chaos Class where the Physical Education teacher ‘Badi’ Ekrem asks, “Where was I this summer?” and cries, “Everyone’s flag was raised, but ours wasn’t.” Turkey was among the countries that boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics due to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
Turkey’s return to gold medal-winning days began with the 1988 Seoul Olympics, when the weightlifting legend Naim Süleymanoğlu defected from Bulgaria and came to Turkey, marking a turning point. Naim won a gold medal in Seoul in 1988. After a long hiatus, Turkey won gold in wrestling again in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics with Mehmet Akif Pirim. Of course, Naim Süleymanoğlu again took home the gold. In the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, our gold medal count reached 4. Alongside Naim, Halil Mutlu in weightlifting and Hamza Yerlikaya and Mahmut Demir in wrestling overcame their opponents to stand on the top podium. The era of the winds brought by Naim Süleymanoğlu and Halil Mutlu in weightlifting is long gone.
Taha Akgül placed third in wrestling in Paris and announced his retirement afterward. The 2008 Beijing Olympics saw our medals overshadowed by athletes using banned substances. Elvan Abeylegesse, whom we had naturalized from Ethiopia, won silver in the 1000 m and 5000 m events, but she was banned for two years when a retrospective investigation revealed she had used banned substances in 2007. Naturally, her medals were revoked. A similar scandal occurred with Sibel Özkan, who won silver in weightlifting.
In the 2012 London Olympics, the medals won by Aslı Çakır Alptekin, who won gold in athletics, and Gamze Bulut, who won silver, were revoked due to doping. We have now become known more for the medals taken away from us due to doping and the use of banned substances than for those we have won. In the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Mete Gazoz made history by winning our country’s first gold medal in archery.
The AKP has been in power since November 2002. Looking back, the number of tangible successes is quite low. There have been successes in basketball and volleyball at the club level, with foreign players playing a significant role. The Women’s Volleyball National Team has achieved great success in recent years. Of course, it’s important to note the presence of Vargas, who is of Cuban origin.
Even in wrestling, which we see as our ancestral sport, we are far from our past glory. We are not present in team sports except for shooting and volleyball. Of course, the government is not solely responsible, but it bears the biggest share of the blame for the failures. Federations are far from being autonomous. Everything is tied to one man. It’s impossible for someone to become the head of a federation without receiving approval from the Palace. Erdoğan cites the construction of stadiums and sports halls as examples. Massive stadiums are built, but the stands remain empty. Clubs are on the verge of bankruptcy. The stadium fields deteriorate quickly.
The Women’s Volleyball National Team finished the tournament in 4th place. There’s also the club aspect. Among the giants of Turkish sports, only Fenerbahçe invests in branches other than football. The letters ‘SK’ next to the club names stand for sports club, but they are more than just football clubs. Among the 102 athletes who competed in Paris, 27 were from Fenerbahçe. Galatasaray sent 6, and Beşiktaş sent only one athlete to the Olympic team. ASKİ, ENKA, and İBB sent more athletes than Galatasaray and Beşiktaş. We ranked 64th among 84 countries that won medals.
We returned from Paris with high expectations but no gold. Rhetoric only goes so far. No one dares to say “The Emperor has no clothes.” Turkey shares the fate of other countries ruled by a single man. There is no light at the end of the tunnel.
