Turkey Boxing Federation President Gözgeç: “We will make a decision not to leave anyone behind.”

The President of the Turkish Boxing Federation, Eyüp Gözgeç, stated, “I had previously said ‘we will do this in 2028’. It seems our journey is long. We will sit down with our management and ask our friends who walk this path with us. We will make a decision not to leave them halfway.”

The Turkish Boxing Federation’s Board of Directors met with national boxers participating in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games at an event held at a hotel in Ankara with members of the press.

In his speech, Eyüp Gözgeç reminded that 101 national athletes competed in the Olympics, and Turkey finished the Olympics with 8 medals: 3 silver and 5 bronze. Gözgeç noted that Turkey ranks 64th in the medal standings, saying, “The 2 silver and 1 bronze medals won by the Turkish Boxing Federation account for half of the country’s total medals. If we hadn’t won any medals, I believe we would have fallen to 100th place. In boxing, we rank 4th with France in the Olympics.”

Gözgeç stated that the boxing national team represents Turkey with 7 boxers (2 men and 5 women) at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, and made the following evaluation:

“Actually, we received a quota for 8 people, but one of our boxers could not compete two days before the matches due to a precautionary measure for a painkiller he used at 71 kg. However, 7 of our athletes competed. The whole of Turkey watched, we had extraordinary matches, but we drew very unfortunate lots. They gave us the opportunity to host the European Continental Qualifiers in Turkey. I explained this to our esteemed minister at the meeting in Istanbul, saying ‘This has a cost of 1.5 million dollars. We will collect 700-800 thousand dollars from the athletes and accommodation. We will find sponsors from our management for 200-300 thousand dollars. It will be a burden of around 400-500 thousand dollars for you. If we do this at home, we would have gained more quotas.’ The minister replied, ‘It would be very good, I support it, let’s do it in Turkey.’ However, later on Tuesday, the deputy general manager called me and said, ‘We will not do this, let’s give it up.’ We do not know what happened in those two days, who said what to whom, or what was done. I do not think our Sports Minister is aware of this issue. We saw the advantages of being the host in France during the organizations. We couldn’t take advantage of the field and audience benefits.”

After his speech, Gözgeç answered questions, responding to the question, “Will you be a candidate in the next period?” with, “I had previously said ‘we will do this in 2028’. It seems our journey is long. We will sit down with our management and ask our friends who walk this path with us. We will make a decision not to leave them halfway.”

“Our dream is to go to the Olympics again”

Buse Naz Çakıroğlu, who won a silver medal for the second consecutive time at the Olympics, expressed that they have gained good momentum in boxing, saying, “We always try to do our best and bring Turkish boxing and women’s boxing to the best places. We are only focusing on the gold medal. When there is no gold medal, we all feel sad.”

Çakıroğlu, who aims to compete in Los Angeles 2028, stated, “An athlete who has played in the final in two Olympics has only one dream, to go to the Olympics again. What I meant by ‘continue or stop’ was this, we will talk to Coach Nazım, rest a bit, and prepare only for the Olympics. It could be European or world, but our dream is to go to the Olympics again.”

National boxer Hatice Akbaş, who won a silver medal, also stated that they achieved a significant success as a team, saying, “As a women’s team, we demonstrated the strength of Turkish boxing there with a beautiful participation. I thank my teammates very much.”