Mithat Bayrak

Mithat Bayrak medal table
Wrestling
Turkey
Olympic games
gold	1956 Melbourne	Welter
gold	1960 Rome	Welter

Mithat Bayrak (born March 3, 1929 in Adapazarı , † April 20, 2014 ) was a Turkish wrestler . He was a two-time Olympic welterweight champion.

Career

Mithat Bayrak grew up as a teenager in Adapazarı in Asia Minor . As a teenager, he was enthusiastic about the traditional Turkish oil wrestling match , but switched to modern Olympic wrestling in 1949. He joined the Sakarya "Güres" association. After he was noticed by his good performances, he was accepted into the Turkish national team of wrestlers and then had such excellent coaches as Gazanfer Bilge , Mehmet Oktav , Hüseyin Erkmen and Celal Atik over the years . He only wrestled in the Greco-Roman style .

His first start in a major international tournament was in 1955 at the Mediterranean Games, where he had to be content with 5th place in the welterweight division. But just a year later he became Olympic champion at the Olympic Games in Melbourne . In 1960 he repeated this success at the Olympic Games in Rome after he had prevailed in the Olympic elimination against Kâzım Ayvaz . In 1964 he started at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, but retired from the tournament without defeat (two draws).

Bayrak then ended his international wrestling career and emigrated to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1961 . He wrestled for KSV Witten 07 for almost 20 years , worked in this club as a coach and, out of the joy of wrestling, joined the Witten reserve team when he was almost 40 years old.

In Witten he ran several restaurants together with his wife. He lived in Herdecke and was the father of a son who works as a youth coach at KSV Witten 07. For his services to wrestling , Bayrak was inducted into the FILA International Wrestling Hall of Fame in September 2011 .

International success

year	space	competition	Weight class	Results
1955	4th	Mediterranean Games in Barcelona	Welter	behind Bruno Pirrazoli, Italy , Jean-Baptist Leclerc , France and Petmezas, Greece
1956	gold	OS in Melbourne	Welter	with victories over Miklós Szilvási , Hungary , Mitu Petkow, Bulgaria , James Holt, USA , Per Berlin , Sweden and Wladimir Manejew , Soviet Union
1958	10.	World Cup in Budapest	medium	with a draw against Pal Szekély, Hungary and Branislav Simić , Yugoslavia and one defeat against Giwi Kartosia , USSR
1959	1.	Intern. Tournament in Savona	medium	before René Schiermeyer , France and Horst Heß , Germany
1959	2.	Mediterranean Games in Beirut	Welter	behind Stevan Horvat , Yugoslavia and in front of Schiermeyer
1959	2.	Tournament in Split	Welter	behind Jan Roots, Soviet Union and in front of Valeriu Bularca , Romania , Horvath, Gyula Tarr, Hungary and Mitu Petkow
1959	2.	Balkan Games in Istanbul	medium
1960	gold	OS in Rome	Welter	with victories over Franz Berger, Austria , Bertil Nyström , Sweden, Horvath, Antal Rizmayer, Hungary, Schiermeyer, Günther Maritschnigg , Germany and a draw against Grigori Gamarnik , Soviet Union
1964	11.	OS Tokyo	Welter	after a draw against Bertil Nyström, Sweden, a win over Matti Laakso, Finland and a defeat against Rudolf Vesper , GDR

Explanations

• all competitions in Greco-Roman style
• OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship
• Welter weight, then up to 73 kg, mean weight up to 79 kg body weight (until 1961), since 1962: welter weight up to 78 kg and mean weight up to 87 kg body weight

Most important international battles

• 1956, Hungary - Turkey, GR, We, point defeat against Szilvási,
• 1958, Turkey - Finland, GR, Wed, points winner over Kyttänen

literature

• Documentation of FILA's International Wrestling Championships, 1976
• various issues of the specialist magazine Athletik from 1952 to 1962

Individual evidence

1. ↑ KSV mourns Mithat Bayrak , accessed on April 22, 2014
2. ↑ Tricia Saunders inducted into FILA International Wrestling Hall of Fame in Istanbul, Turkey , accessed on January 18, 2012 (English)

Web links

• Profile of Mithat Bayrak at the Institute for Applied Exercise Science
• Mithat Bayrak in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )