Ahmet Kireççi

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Ahmet Kireççi medal table

Wrestler

Turkey
Olympic games
bronze 1936 Berlin Means freestyle
gold 1948 London Heavy Greco
Balkan Championships
gold 1932
gold 1940

Ahmet Kireççi (born October 27, 1914 in Mersin , † August 17, 1978 ibid) was a Turkish wrestler and Olympic champion in London in 1948 in Greco-Roman. Heavyweight style.

Career

Ahmet Kireççi grew up in Mersin and started boxing there as a teenager . He later also did athletics and then switched to the Turkish national sport of oil wrestling . He won in Tarsus an important tournament in the oil rings and then went in 1931 from Istanbul . There he became a member of the wrestling club "Kumkapi" Istanbul. At the age of 17 he was accepted into the Turkish national wrestling team, of which he was a member for 17 years. He achieved his first success on the international wrestling mat in 1932 when he became champion of the Balkans.

At the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin , Ahmet Kireççi started in free style in the middleweight division. He achieved four points wins in a row, for each of which he was burdened with a missing point. Since he lost on points against the American Richard Voliva in the 5th round , he had reached the fault number five, with which he had to retire without being able to fight the French Emile Poilvé for the gold medal . But he won the bronze medal , making it the first Turkish wrestler to win a medal in freestyle wrestling at the Olympic Games. He then received permission from Turkish President Ismet Inönü to make his nickname "Mersinli" his real name.

In 1937 Ahmet Kireççi stayed in Leningrad and was there in the rules of the Greco-Roman. Inaugurated wrestling match. He then started in 1939 at the European Championships in Oslo in this style and scored two victories in the middleweight division, before he retired after defeats to Ercole Gallegatti from Italy and Ivar Johansson from Sweden and took 6th place. In 1940 Ahmet Kireççi was once again the Balkan champion.

In 1948 Ahmet Kireççi, meanwhile grown into the heavyweight division, took part in the Olympic Games for the second time. In London he started in Greco-Roman. Style and became Olympic champion with four overwhelming victories . His toughest opponents Tor Nilsson from Sweden and Guido Fantoni from Italy could not prevent this triumph.

Ahmet Kireççi (Mersinli) died on August 17, 1979 in Mersin as a result of a traffic accident. In his honor, a statue of him was placed in the port of Mersin. In addition, a recreational / children's playground named "Mersin'li Ahmet Parkı" (Ahmet from Mersin Park) has been set up in the "Kiremithane Mahallesi" in Akdeniz District of Mersin City.

International success

(OS = Olympic Games, EM = European Championship, F = free style, GR = Greco-Roman style. Mi = middleweight, S = heavyweight, back then up to 79 kg or over 87 kg body weight)

(Note: In the English-language text of Wikipedia, in a portrait of Ahmet Kireççi, the winning of a bronze medal at the World Cup in 1937 is stated. This is wrong, because in 1937 there were no world championships in amateur wrestling.)

swell

  • 1) Div. Issues of the specialist magazines "Athletik" from 1936 and "Kraftsport" from 1939,
  • 2) Documentation of International Wrestling Championships of the FILA, 1936,
  • 3) Yumuktepe website in Turkish

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Kireççi, Ahmet
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mersinli, Ahmet
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Turkish wrestler
DATE OF BIRTH October 27, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Mersin
DATE OF DEATH 17th August 1979
Place of death Mersin