El levantador de pesas nacional se está preparando para los Juegos Olímpicos de París en Isparta.

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

Muhammed Furkan Özbek, who will represent Turkey in the weightlifting branch 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 who represented Turkey in the men’s 73 kg category lifted 152 kg in snatch and 189 kg in clean and jerk, thus earning an 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, so we started preparations early because we were sure we would get it. 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 little time left, everything is going well to compete on the podium, thankfully we have no problems.’

‘I represent Turkey alone. We want it very much, we believe strongly’

The national athlete, who stated that he prepared for the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics after gaining experience following the 2020 Olympics, said, ‘After the 2020 Olympics, I couldn’t fully dedicate myself to sports for about six months, 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 from the beginning to today, because it shows that he also had a great effort. We want it very much, we believe strongly in it. We didn’t approach an European Championship or tournaments or a World Championship with the eye of a medal, but completely turned it into a quota struggle and competed that way. Ultimately, by going there and representing our federation and my country as the only representative from Turkey in the weightlifting branch, I want to be able to bring this medal back in a good way and provide this happiness to my close circle, family, coaches, and above all to my country, my homeland.’

‘I want to bring an Olympic medal to my country after eight years’

Furkan Özbek, pointing out that no Olympic medal has come to Turkey in the weightlifting branch since 2016, said, ‘No Olympic medal has come after 2016, I want to bring this medal after eight years. We are very ambitious, we believe, I believe I can succeed. I have serious hopes of returning with a medal. I do not see the experience and sadness 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 go to the 2024 Paris Olympics and show and prove this experience to everyone and to myself by returning with a medal.’ National team coach Gökhan Kuşçuoğlu spoke about the preparation process for the Olympics. Kuşçuoğlu said, ‘We started the preparation camp in Antalya on April 27. We have been in Isparta for the last two weeks, spending the final period here and we will set off for Paris on August 4. We started the preparations completely towards this goal after the 2021 Olympics. We made our periodizations and preparations for the competitions. We did our work at the national team camps. Our athlete Furkan became third in the world in Riyadh, then he went through two tournaments and the European Championship and came second here. We are currently going in the same direction, following the same goal.’ Kuşçuoğlu stated that the preparation camp is going very well, saying ‘Our preparation period is going very well thanks to the opportunities provided by our state and the dedication shown by our federation president. Our goal is to return with a medal, hopefully. This is our only wish.’