Turkey has participated in the summer Olympics since 1908. A total of 82 medals have been won by Turkish athletes in the summer games including 37 gold medals.
Two Turkish athletes have three gold medals each, the most individual gold medals in the summer games for Turkey. Halil Mutlu (pictured) won gold three times in two different clases: in the men's flyweight (weightlifting) at Atlanta 1996 and in the men's bantamweight (weightlifting) at Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004.
The other three time gold medalist for Turkey is Naim Suleymanoglu. Suleymanoglu, a weightlifter, won three time in the men's featherweight at Seoul 1988, Barcelona 1992 and Atlanta 1996.
Three Turkish athletes have two gold medals each in the summer Olympics. Wrestler Hamza Yerlikaya (pictured) won in two separate divisions: in the Greco-Roman middleweight at Atlanta 1996 (defeated Thomas Zander (GER) in final) and in the Greco-Roman light heavyweight at Sydney 2000 (defeated Sandor Istvan Bardosi (HUN) in final).
The other two two-time gold medalist for Turkey are wrestlers. Mithat Bayrak won twice in the Greco-Roman welterweight at Melbourne 1956 (defeated Vladimir Maneyev (URS) in final) and at Rome 1960 (defeated Gunther Maritschnigg (GER) in final). Mustafa Dagistanli won twice in two different divisions: in the freestyle bantamweight at Melbourne 1956 (defeated Mykhailo Shakhov (URS) in final) and in the men's freestyle at Rome 1960 (defeated Stancho Ivanov (BUL) in final).
The most recent gold medalist for Turkey in the summer games is wrestler Ramazan Shahin (pictured), who defeated Andriy Stadnik (UKR) in the final of the men's welterweight class at Beijing 2008.
As of now, 88 Turkish athletes are headed to London to compete in 14 events, including various events in athletics, boxing, cycling, judo, taekwondo, swimming and wrestling. In addition, the women's volleyball team has also qualified for the London games as well.
Up next: Turkmenistan
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