Mahmut Atalay

Mahmut Atalay
Medal record
Men's Freestyle Wrestling
Olympic Games
1964 Tokyo, Japan Welterweight
1968 Mexico City, Mexico Welterweight
World Championships
1963 Sofia, Bulgaria Welterweight
1965 Manchester, England Welterweight
1966 Toledo, Ohio, U.S. Welterweight
European Championships
1966 Karlsruhe, Germany Welterweight
1967 Istanbul, Turkey Welterweight
Mediterranean Games
1959 Beirut, Lebanon Welterweight
1963 Naples, Italy Welterweight
Balkan Championships
1962 Istanbul, Turkey Welterweight
1965 Yambol, Bulgaria Welterweight

Mahmut Atalay (March 30, 1934, Çorum – December 4, 2004, Ankara) was a renowned Turkish World champion and Olympic medalist sports wrestler in the Welterweight class (73 kg until 1961, 78 kg from 1961 on) and a trainer who was born in Corum, Turkey. He won the bronze medal at the 1964 Olympics in Men's Freestyle wrestling and the gold medal at the 1968 Olympics.

He was born 1934 in Çorak, a village of Çorum Province in northern Turkey as a member of a family, which immigrated from the Caucasus after 1864. Mahmut Atalay began wrestling as a youngster in the traditional Turkish Karakucak Wrestling and then switched over to sports wrestling. He was admitted to the national team after winning his title of Turkish champion in 1959, and received training by the renowned wrestlers such as Yaşar Doğu, Celal Atik and Nasuh Akar. He became 15 times national champion. Besides his medals at two Olympic Games, Mahmut Atalay became World champion and won several titles at various championships.

In 1968, he was honored by the International Wrestling Federation FILA with the award "Most Technical Wrestler of the World".[1] He retired from the active sports in 1968 after having represented his country more than 150 times successfully at international competitions, and served then for 16 more years as the trainer of the national team.

Mahmut Atalay died on December 4, 2004 in Ankara following a heart attack. He was survived by his wife Perihan and three children.

Achievements

Notes

  1. ↑ Wrestling File (Turkish)

References



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