Our national wrestler Taha Akgül won a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics.

In the Paris Olympic Games, our national wrestler Taha Akgül, who represented our country in the freestyle 125 kg category, won the bronze medal by defeating Aiaal Lazarev from Kyrgyzstan 7-0 in the 3rd place match.

3rd OLYMPIC MEDAL

The national wrestler who won the bronze medal by defeating his opponent, thus experienced the joy of winning an Olympic medal for the third time. Akgül had previously won the bronze medal at the 2021 Olympics held in Tokyo and the gold medal at the 2016 Olympics held in Rio.

ENDED HIS WRESTLING CAREER

The successful athlete who won Turkey's 7th medal at the Paris Olympics, took off his shoes on the mat after this match and ended his wrestling career.

WHO IS TAHA AKGÜL?

Taha Akgül, considered one of the greatest names in wrestling history, became the Olympic champion in Rio and also won three World, ten European, and one Mediterranean Games championships. He started wrestling at the age of 12 at Sivas Demirspor and later moved to Izmir. After becoming the runner-up in the World Juniors in 2010, he made a great breakthrough. Since 2011, he has stood on the podium 20 times in major championships. With the two victories he achieved at the World Championships in 2014-15, he came to Rio 2016 as one of the most important favorites. He won all four matches and left two points to his opponents on his way to the championship. Thus, he won Turkey's first heavyweight Olympic championship since 1996. Akgül, who once again appeared on the Olympic stage in Tokyo, finished the games in third place this time. He has won a total of 10 European championships, making him the European wrestler with the most gold medals in freestyle wrestling of all time. Since 2011, he has achieved a record of 151-9 in matches. Akgül graduated from Karamanoğlu Mehmet Bey University and completed his doctorate at Cumhuriyet University in Sivas, the city where he was born. The Olympic champion is coached by Abdullah Çakmar, who is also a member of Ankara ASKİ Sports Club. Akgül got married to Hungarian fitness instructor Bianka Cekusz in 2022.

OUR OTHER MEDALS AT THE PARIS OLYMPICS

Except for Taha Akgül, our star athletes have appeared on the podium 6 times so far and managed to win 3 silver and 3 bronze medals for our country.

Şevval İlayda Tarhan & Yusuf Dikeç - Silver - Shooting - Mixed 10m Air Pistol

Hatice Akbaş - Silver - Boxing - Women's 54 kg

Buse Naz Çakıroğlu - Silver - Boxing - Women's 51 kg

Mete Gazoz, Ulaş Berkim Tümer, Abdullah Yıldırmış - Bronze - Archery - Men's team

Buse Tosun Çavuşoğlu - Bronze - Wrestling - Women's freestyle 68 kg

Esra Yıldız Kahraman - Bronze - Boxing - Women's 57 kg