Yaşar Erkan

Yaşar Erkan
Medal record

Men's Greco-Roman wrestling
Olympic Games
	1936 Berlin	Featherweight
Balkan Championships
	1933 Istanbul, Turkey	Featherweight
	1934 Istanbul, Turkey	Featherweight
	1935 Istanbul, Turkey	Featherweight
	1937 Izmir, Turkey	Featherweight

Yaşar Erkan (30 April 1911 in Erzincan – 18 May 1986) was a Turkish sports wrestler, who became first Olympic gold medalist for Turkey in the Featherweight class of Men's Greco-Roman Wrestling.

Son of a renowned wrestler for yağlı güreş (oil wrestling), he moved with his family from their village İspidi in the Refahiye district of Erzincan Province to Istanbul at 4 years of age. In 1933, he was admitted to the national team and won the Balkan Championship the same year. Yaşar Erkan repeated his title wins in the following two years 1934 and 1935. In 1936, he became the first ever Turkish sportsman to win a gold medal at the Olympics. Before retiring in 1940, he won the Balkan Championship once again in 1937 in İzmir.

References

Olympics Database
Who is who (Turkish)
Wrestling (Turkish)

Olympic Champions in Greco-Roman featherweight

1912 Kaarlo Koskelo (FIN) 1920 Oskari Friman (FIN) 1924 Kalle Anttila (FIN) 1928 Voldemar Väli (EST) 1932 Giovanni Gozzi (ITA) 1936 Yaşar Erkan (TUR) 1948 Mehmet Oktav (TUR) 1952 Yakiv Punkin (URS) 1956 Rauno Mäkinen (FIN) 1960 Müzahir Sille (TUR) 1964 Imre Polyák (HUN) 1968 Roman Rurua (URS) 1972 Georgi Markov (URS) 1976 Kazimierz Lipień (POL) 1980 Stelios Mygiakis (GRE) 1984 Kim Weon-kee (KOR) 1988 Kamandar Madzhidov (URS) 1992 Mehmet Akif Pirim (TUR) 1996 Włodzimierz Zawadzki (POL) 2000 Varteres Samurgashev (RUS) 2004 Jung Ji-hyun (KOR) 2008 Islambek Albiev (RUS) 2012 Omid Norouzi (IRI)

−60 kg (1912–1920) −62 kg (1924–1928) −61 kg (1932–1960) −63 kg (1964–1968) −62 kg (1972–1996) −63 kg (2000) −60 kg (2004–2012)

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