Furkan Akar (born 6 March 2002) is a Turkish Olympian short track speed skater. He is the first representative of

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

at the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

short track speed skating Short-track speed skating is a form of competitive ice skating, ice speed skating. In competitions, multiple skaters (typically between four and six) skate on an oval ice track with a length of . The rink itself is long by wide, which is the s ...

. He is also the first and only Turkish athlete placed in "Top 10" at the

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (), also known as the Winter Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were held i ...

by finishing 6th in the 1000-meter event at the

2022 Winter Olympics The 2022 Winter Olympics, officially called the XXIV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Beijing 2022 (2022), were an international winter multi-sport event held from 4 to 20 February 2022 in Beijing, China, and surrounding areas wit ...

held in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. Akar finished third (1:34.780) and gained a bronz medal in the 2023 European Championship 1000 metres race, a first for Turkey.

Early years

Furkan Akar was born in

Erzurum Erzurum (; ) is a List of cities in Turkey, city in eastern Anatolia, Turkey. It is the largest city and capital of Erzurum Province and is 1,900 meters (6,233 feet) above sea level. Erzurum had a population of 367,250 in 2010. It is the site of an ...

, Turkey on 6 March 2002. He started motivated performing winter sport by his brother while he was watching him in training. Aged nine, he began skiing. He is a student of Sport coaching in the Sport Science Faculty at Atatürk University in Erzurum.

Sports career

Akar competes in

with the license of Erzurum G.S.İ.M. He has been in the national team since 2015. He took the bronze medal in the Boys' 500m and the silver medal in the 1500m event at the 2019 European Youth Olympic Winter Festival held in

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ), ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'' is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 2 ...

, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He participated in the Men's 1000m event at the 2021–22 ISU Speed Skating World Cup, where he ranked 17th. He won a place at the

, China. He was named flagbearer along with Ayşenur Duman at the opening ceremony of the

. He competed in the short track speed skating 1000m event, and finished the Final B in second place with 1:36.052. He ranked 6th in total. He ranked 3rd at the 2023 European Short Track Speed Skating Championships.

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Akar, Furkan 2002 births Living people Sportspeople from Erzurum Atatürk University alumni Olympic short-track speed skaters for Turkey Turkish male short-track speed skaters Short-track speed skaters at the 2022 Winter Olympics Competitors at the 2023 Winter World University Games 21st-century Turkish sportsmen

Early years

Sports career

See also

References

External links