Emine Arslan (born 4 January 1989) is a Turkish

kickboxer Kickboxing ( ) is a full-contact hybrid martial art and boxing type based on punching and kicking. Kickboxing originated in the 1950s to 1970s. The fight takes place in a boxing ring, normally with boxing gloves, mouth guards, shorts, and ...

competing in the full contact 52 kg division. She is a

world The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that Existence, exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk ...

Islamic Solidarity Games The Islamic Solidarity Games () is a multinational, multi-sport event. Managed jointly by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and Islamic Solidarity Sports Association (ISSA), the Games involve elite athletes of the OIC competing in a ...

and

European Games The European Games is a continental multi-sport event in the Olympic tradition contested by athletes from countries served by national Olympic committees within the European Olympic Committees (EOC), the regional association for such committ ...

kickboxing champion.

Sport career

Arslan discovered kickboxing at the age of 23 as her younger sister started to attend a new gym, which opened in a local basement. The gym owner, Hasan Fahri Şen, was a former Turkish champion in

martial arts Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defence; military and law enforcement applications; combat sport, competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; ...

and a coach. He offered to start training her for kickboxing. In the beginning, she was not interested because she had to work until late leaving little spare time and she was very tired after work. She also smoked two packs of cigarettes a day, and coughed up dust due to the conditions in her workplace. The coach and Deniz Işık Doğan persuaded her to begin training in the gym. She soon realized that kickboxing was very different from what she had thought. She exercised three days a week, and made great progress as a sportswoman in the first four months. Arslan became the Turkish champion for three consecutive years. In 2015, she debuted internationally and she won a gold medal at the Intercontinental Kickboxing Mauritius Cup event. She won the silver medal at the 2016 European Championship in

Maribor Maribor ( , , ; also known by other #Name, historical names) is the List of cities and towns in Slovenia, second-largest city in Slovenia and the largest city of the traditional region of Styria (Slovenia), Lower Styria. It is the seat of the ...

in Slovenia, and the gold medal at the 2019 World Seniors Kickboxing Championship in

Antalya Antalya is the fifth-most populous city in Turkey and the capital of Antalya Province. Recognized as the "capital of tourism" in Turkey and a pivotal part of the Turkish Riviera, Antalya sits on Anatolia's southwest coast, flanked by the Tau ...

in Turkey. In 2021, she captured the gold medals at the World Kickboxing Seniors Championship in

Jesolo Jesolo (; ) is a seaside resort town and ''comune'' of 26,873 inhabitants in the Metropolitan City of Venice, Italy. With around 5.5 million visitors per year, Jesolo ranks second among beach resorts in the country for number of tourists, and t ...

, Italy and the

2021 Islamic Solidarity Games ‌The 2021 Islamic Solidarity Games () were the 5th edition of the event held from 9 to 18 August 2022 at Konya, Turkey under the aegis of Islamic Solidarity Sports Federation (ISSF). It was the first time in history that the event was organise ...

Konya Konya is a major city in central Turkey, on the southwestern edge of the Central Anatolian Plateau, and is the capital of Konya Province. During antiquity and into Seljuk times it was known as Iconium. In 19th-century accounts of the city in En ...

, Turkey. At the

2023 European Games The 3rd European Games (), also known as the 2023 European Games or Kraków-Małopolska 2023, was an international multi-sport event held from 21 June to 2 July 2023 in Kraków and Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Małopolska, Poland. It was the first ...

Myślenice Myślenice is a town in southern Poland situated in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship, 30 km south of Kraków. The town is divided into six districts. The most popular of them, Zarabie, is a famous tourist destination. It is located behind the Ra ...

, Poland, she was the champion.

Personal life

Emine Arslan was born as a first child in the

Bağcılar Bağcılar is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Istanbul Province, Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 23 km2, and its population is 740,069 (2022). It is located on the East Thrace, European side of Istanbul, near the ...

district of

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

, Turkey on 4 January 1989. Her brother was born a year later and her sister two years later. When she was ten years old, her mother left her father, and later divorced him. Emine lived for a year with her mother before she returned to her father due to her mother's indifference. At age twelve, she started working as a child worker in a garment workshop, where her father had an

ironing Ironing is the use of an iron (appliance), iron, usually heated, to remove wrinkles and unwanted creases from fabric. The heating is commonly done to a temperature of , depending on the fabric. Ironing works by loosening the bonds between the lon ...

job. She dropped out of school after her primary education. Since they had no place to stay, she and her two siblings spent the nights in the workshop's office, until her father was able to rent a house. Her father had to quit work after he was diagnosed with lung cancer and he died in 2007. At eighteen she was the head of her family group until she reconciled with her mother and they began living together again. She was fired from her workplace when she asked for permission to attend a national preparation camp for kickboxing. She found work as a secretary at the district municipality's youth center, after she won the silver medal at the European Championship in 2016. She completed her secondary education using

distance learning Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance; today, it usually involves online ...

and she earned extra money by coaching groups of women in kickboxing. She played

stunt A stunt is an unusual, difficult, dramatic physical feat that may require a special skill, performed for artistic purposes usually for a public audience, as on television or in theaters or cinema. Stunts are a feature of many action films. Befo ...

roles in '' Valley of the Wolves'', ''

Kırgın Çiçekler ''Kırgın Çiçekler'' () is a Turkish drama/psychological thriller television series that premiered on 29 June 2015. It stars İpek Karapınar, Özgür Çevik, Biran Damla Yılmaz, Gökçe Akyıldız, Hazar Motan, Çağla Irmak and Ale ...

'' and ''Kösem Sultan''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arslan, Emine 1989 births Living people People from Bağcılar Martial artists from Istanbul Turkish female kickboxers 21st-century Turkish sportswomen Islamic Solidarity Games gold medalists for Turkey Islamic Solidarity Games medalists in kickboxing Kickboxers at the 2021 Islamic Solidarity Games Medalists at the 2021 Islamic Solidarity Games European Games competitors for Turkey European Games gold medalists for Turkey European Games medalists in kickboxing Kickboxers at the 2023 European Games