Turkey returned home from Rio de Janeiro with eight medals (one gold, three silver, and four bronze), a vast improvement on the nation's overall medal count from the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.[3] Five of these medals were awarded to the wrestlers, including a sole golden glory from double world champion Taha Akgül in the men's super heavyweight freestyle (125 kg), and a runner-up feat from reigning world and multiple-time European champion Rıza Kayaalp in the Greco-Roman side, despite his failed attempt to avert a historic golden "three-peat" set forth by his Cuban rival Mijaín López.[4][5]
Apart from the wrestlers, three Turkish athletes collected the rest of the country's medals in their respective individual sports. Among them were Cuban-born track sprinter Yasmani Copello in the men's 400 m hurdles, taekwondo fighter Nur Tatar in the women's welterweight division (67 kg), and Turkmen-born weightlifter Daniyar İsmayilov, who ended the country's momentary medal drought in his signature sport with a scintillating silver in the men's 69 kg category.[6]
The Turkish Olympic Committee (Turkish: Türkiye Milli Olimpiyat Komitesi, TMOK) fielded a roster of 103 athletes, 55 men and 48 women, to compete across twenty-one different sports at these Games; it was the nation's second-largest delegation sent to the Olympics, relatively smaller by eleven athletes than in London four years earlier.[2]Women's basketball was the only collective sport in which Turkey qualified for the Games, having returned to the Olympic scene for the second straight time. These Games also witnessed several Turkish athletes compete for the first time in the women's modern pentathlon, as well as in equestrian jumping (1960) and fencing (1984) after long years of absence.
Track and field accounted for the most number of athletes on the Turkish team by an individual-based sport, with 31 entries (20 men and 11 women). There was only a single competitor each in badminton, sprint kayaking, equestrian jumping, fencing, modern pentathlon, and tennis.
The Turkish roster featured all three medalists returning from London 2012, namely taekwondo fighters Nur Tatar (women's 67 kg) and defending titleholder Servet Tazegül (men's 68 kg), and Greco-Roman wrestler Rıza Kayaalp, who entered his third straight Games as the reigning world champion, a multiple-time European champion, and a top medal favorite in the super heavyweight category. Because of his sporting successes, Kayaalp was nominated by TMOK to become the country's flag bearer in the opening ceremony.[1][7]
Nearly a quarter of the Turkish athletes representing at these Games were born in the overseas, with several of them coming from Africa and former Soviet nations. Among the foreign-born athletes were track sprinters Jak Ali Harvey (Jamaica) and Ramil Guliyev (Azerbaijan), track hurdler Yasmani Copello (Cuba), breaststroke swimmer and four-time world junior champion Zeynep Güneş (Ukraine), three-time Olympians Melek Hu (table tennis player, China) and Karin Melis Mey (long jumper, South Africa), and world-ranked weightlifter Daniyar İsmayilov (Turkmenistan).[8]
Other notable athletes on the Turkish squad included sailing brothers Ateş and Deniz Çınar in the men's 470 class, double world champion and top medal favorite Taha Akgül in the men's super heavyweight freestyle (125 kg), and hammer thrower and 2004 bronze medalist Eşref Apak, who headed the roster as the lone competitor going to his fourth straight Olympics. Seventeen-year-old gymnast Tutya Yılmaz was Turkey's youngest athlete of the Games, with pistol shooter and three-time Olympian Yusuf Dikeç rounding out the field as the oldest competitor (aged 43).
One Turkish archer has qualified each for the men's and women's individual recurve at the Olympics by securing one of three available Olympic spots at the 2016 European Championships in Nottingham, Great Britain.[9]
Turkey has qualified one badminton player for the women's singles into the Olympic tournament. Özge Bayrak had claimed her Olympic spot as one of top 34 individual shuttlers in the BWF World Rankings as of 5 May 2016.[12]
Turkey has entered five boxers to compete in the following weight classes into the Olympic boxing tournament. Onur Şipal became the first Turkish boxer to be selected to the Olympic team with a top two finish of his respective weight division in the AIBA Pro Boxing series.[15][16] Meanwhile, three further boxers (Gozgec, Ünal, and Demirezen) had claimed their Olympic spots with box-off victories at the 2016 European Qualification Tournament in Samsun.[17]
Turkish riders qualified for a maximum of two quota places in the men's Olympic road race by virtue of their top 15 final national ranking in the 2015 UCI Europe Tour.[20]
Turkey has entered one jumping rider into the Olympic equestrian competition by virtue of a top national finish from Central & Eastern Europe in the individual FEI Olympic Rankings.[21] This signified the nation's Olympic return to the sport for the first time since 1960.
Turkey has entered one fencer into the Olympic competition, signifying the nation's sporting comeback for the first time since 1984. İrem Karamete had claimed her Olympic spot in the women's foil by finishing among the top four individuals at the European Zonal Qualifier in Prague, Czech Republic.
Turkey has entered two artistic gymnasts into the Olympic competition. Ferhat Arican and Tutya Yılmaz had claimed their Olympic spots each in the men's and women's apparatus and all-around events, respectively, at the Olympic Test Event in Rio de Janeiro.[22][23]
Turkey has qualified a total of four judokas for the following weight classes at the Games. London 2012 Olympian Bekir Özlü (previously competed for Georgia), Dilara Lokmanhekim, and Kayra Sayit were ranked among the top 22 eligible judokas for men and top 14 for women in the IJF World Ranking List of May 30, 2016, while Büşra Katipoğlu at women's half-middleweight (63 kg) earned a continental quota spot from the European region, as the highest-ranked Turkish judoka outside of direct qualifying position.[24]
Turkey has received an invitation from UIPM to send İlke Özyüksel in the women's modern pentathlon to the Olympics for the first time, as one of the next highest-ranked individuals, not yet qualified, in the World Rankings as of June 1, 2016.[25]
Athlete
Event
Fencing (épée one touch)
Swimming (200 m freestyle)
Riding (show jumping)
Combined: shooting/running (10 m air pistol)/(3200 m)
Turkey has qualified one boat in the men's lightweight double sculls for the Olympics by virtue of a top two finish at the 2016 European & Final Qualification Regatta in Lucerne, Switzerland.
Qualification Legend: FA=Final A (medal); FB=Final B (non-medal); FC=Final C (non-medal); FD=Final D (non-medal); FE=Final E (non-medal); FF=Final F (non-medal); SA/B=Semifinals A/B; SC/D=Semifinals C/D; SE/F=Semifinals E/F; QF=Quarterfinals; R=Repechage
Turkish sailors have qualified one boat in each of the following classes through the individual fleet World Championships, and European qualifying regattas.[26][27]
Turkish shooters have achieved quota places for the following events by virtue of their best finishes at the 2014 and 2015 ISSF World Championships, the 2015 ISSF World Cup series, and European Championships or Games, as long as they obtained a minimum qualifying score (MQS) by March 31, 2016.[29]
Turkish swimmers have so far achieved qualifying standards in the following events (up to a maximum of 2 swimmers in each event at the Olympic Qualifying Time (OQT), and potentially 1 at the Olympic Selection Time (OST)):[30][31]
Turkey has entered one athlete into the table tennis competition at the Games. Two-time Olympian Melek Hu secured one of ten available Olympic spots in the women's singles by winning the group final match at the European Qualification Tournament in Halmstad, Sweden.[32] Meanwhile, Ahmet Li was automatically selected among the top 22 eligible players in the men's singles based on the ITTF Olympic Rankings.[33]
Turkey entered two athletes into the taekwondo competition at the Olympics. 2012 Olympic featherweight champion Servet Tazegül and silver medalist Nur Tatar qualified automatically for their respective weight classes by finishing in the top 6 WTF Olympic rankings.[34][35]
Turkey has entered one tennis player into the Olympic tournament. Due to the withdrawal of several tennis players from the Games, Çağla Büyükakçay (world no. 77) received a spare ITF Olympic place to compete in the women's singles, as the next highest-ranked eligible player, not yet qualified, in the WTA World Rankings as of June 6, 2016.[36][37]
Turkish weightlifters have qualified three women's quota places for the Rio Olympics based on their combined team standing by points at the 2014 and 2015 IWF World Championships. A single men's Olympic spot had been added to the Turkish roster by virtue of a top seven national finish at the 2016 European Championships.[38] The team must allocate these places to individual athletes by June 20, 2016.
Turkey has qualified a total of fourteen wrestlers for each of the following weight classes into the Olympic competition. Four of them finished among the top six to book Olympic spots in the men's freestyle (86 & 125 kg), men's Greco-Roman 130 kg, and women's freestyle 58 kg at the 2015 World Championships, while three additional licenses were awarded to Turkish wrestlers, who progressed to the top two finals at the 2016 European Qualification Tournament.[39][40]
The remaining half of the Turkish roster secured their Olympic places to complete the wrestling line-up in separate World Qualification Tournaments; three of them at the initial meet in Ulaanbaatar and four more at the final meet in Istanbul.
