National weightlifter is preparing for the Paris Olympics in Isparta

Muhammed Furkan Özbek, who will represent Turkey in the weightlifting category at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games, is continuing his preparation camp in Isparta.

Muhammed Furkan Özbek, who will represent Turkey in the weightlifting category at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games, is continuing his preparations in Isparta. At the World Cup held in Phuket, Thailand on April 4, the national athlete representing Turkey in the men’s 73 kg category lifted 152 kg in snatch and 189 kg in clean and jerk, earning the Olympic quota.

The national athlete Özbek, who will go to the Olympics on August 4, stated that he has been preparing for the Olympics for about three months, saying, “Our training is going well. We have been preparing for an Olympic process for about three months. We got our quota a month and a half ago, and since we were sure we would get it, we started preparing early. Our preparations are going well at the moment, we are hopeful, happy, our excitement is still there, we are just waiting for the right day. We have a short time left, everything is going well to compete on the podium, thankfully we have no problems.”

“I represent Turkey alone. We really want it, we believe in it,” said Özbek, who said that after the 2020 Olympics, he decided to prepare for the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics following the experiences he gained. He continued, “After the 2020 Olympics, for about six months I could not fully dedicate myself to sports, and then I decided to prepare for the 2024 Olympics. It is a separate happiness to be able to embark on this journey with my coach, who is the person who brought me here from the very beginning, because it shows that it is also a great effort of his. We really want it, we believe in it, I can summarize it in this way. Now, instead of looking at a European Championship or tournaments or a World Championship with the eyes of a medal, we turned it into a quota struggle and competed that way. In the end, I am representing our country, our federation, and as the only representative from Turkey in the weightlifting category, I represent my country. Evaluating this representation in a good way and being able to bring this medal back happily to my close circle, my family, my coaches, and above all to my country, my homeland, is an important situation for me.”

“I want to bring an Olympic medal to my country after eight years,” said Furkan Özbek, pointing out that no Olympic medal has been won for Turkey in weightlifting since 2016. He added, “After 2016, no Olympic medal has been won, and I want to bring this medal after eight years. We are very ambitious, we believe, I believe I can achieve it. I have serious hopes of returning with a medal. I do not see the experience and sorrow I had at the 2020 Olympics as a failure. I think I gained a good experience. I do not have any concerns about being able to return with a medal by showing and proving this experience at the 2024 Paris Olympics to everyone and myself.” National team coach Gökhan Kuşçuoğlu talked about the preparation process for the Olympics in his speech. Kuşçuoğlu said, “We started the preparation camp in Antalya on April 27. We have been in Isparta for the last two weeks, now we will spend the final period here and head to Paris on August 4. We started preparing completely for this goal after the 2021 Olympics. We made our periodizations and preparations for the competitions. We did our training in national team camps. Our athlete Furkan became third in the world in Riyadh, and then he went through two tournaments and the European Championship and came second here. We are currently going in the same direction with the same goal.” Kuşçuoğlu stated that the preparation camp is going very well, saying, “Thanks to the opportunities provided by our state and the dedication shown by our federation president, our preparation period is going very well. Hopefully, we will return with a medal. This is our only wish.”