History of Turkish sport

Turkish sports;

Sport is an essential element in Turkey:

Football has a tremendous popularity troughout the country. Among the best teams , Galatasaray is the best-known with its succeses won in Europe, then Besiktas, Denizlispor, Fenerbahçe and Trabzonsport that have the best ranking in the Turkish championship.

At World Cup 2002 Turkey finished 3rd playing versus Korea Republic.

                                    

                                        

Wrestling is an historic sport in Turkey. Modern wrestling is the speciality of Turkish world champion Hamza Yerlikaya.

Turkish oil wrestling (yagli güres) : wrestlers spread oil all over their body to make wrestling holds more difficult. This sport originates from the beginning of the Ottoman era. It is more and more appreciated by westerners for its mythical image and its rituals. Every year a competition takes place in Edirne where a new “pehlivan” (very strong man) is appointed in front of the President of the Republic. 

              

                                    

                                    

Weight lifting has considerably developed forming great champions such as Naim Süleymanoglu (appointed one of the five best sportsmen of all times with three successive olympic victories)or Halil Mutlu.

"Cirit": the Turks arrived from Central Asia with their horses, introduced in Anatolia the equestrian sport known as "cirit" or jereed. Cirit is a means of improving equestrian skills, and involves two teams of horsemen, each armed with a dried date, oak or poplar stick. This process of chasing and fleeing, while trying to hit an opponent with a stick, is the essence of the game, which requires skill and sportsmanship.

Cirit was particularly widespread in the Ottoman Empire from the 16th century onwards, becoming the foremost martial sport. In peace time it was played to improve the cavalry's attack and defence skills, and during campaigns to whip up their enthusiasm for battle.

Today cirit is not as widespread as before, but apart from Konya, it is still played in Eastern and South-Eastern Anatolia (Erzurum, Diyarbakir, Siirt...).

                                       

  

                                       

Sureyya Ayhan, the European champion runner in the women’s 1500 m Munich 2002, won a silver medal in the World Athletism Championship 2003 in Paris. She is also the Brussels 2003 Golden League winner in 1,500 m, in a world leading time of 3:55.33.