By Halil Ibrahim Avsar
ANKARA (AA) – Mete Gazoz, a famous Turkish archer and Olympic gold medalist, became the 2023 world champion this week to go down in the Turkish sports history.
Gazoz, who made his international debut in 2013, bagged gold medal at the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics held in the 2021 summer due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It was Türkiye's first Olympic medal in the archery discipline.
The young athlete was the victor at the Berlin 2023 World Archery Championships on Sunday to carry on to be the pride of Türkiye.
On Sunday, Gazoz beat his Canadian opponent Eric Peters 6-4 in the recurve men’s final to be the first Turkish archer to win a world title.
"Today I was the best archer on this planet. I will be the best from now on," Gazoz said after his recent triumph in the German capital.
Gazoz, who took a missing piece of his career by winning the world title, will represent Türkiye in team and individual categories at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
He will appear at Paris as the defending Olympic and world champion.
During his career, Gazoz, who was named the archer of 2018 and 2021, won 51 medals including 21 gold, 14 silver and 16 bronze in leading international competitions.
- Coelho dedicates his book to Gazoz
Best-selling writer Paulo Coelho from Brazil dedicated his book "The Archer" to Olympic champion Gazoz in 2021.
"Mete Gazoz ... This is my first book dedicated to you. Prodigy of archery," Coelho said in a video posted to Twitter to congratulate him.
Coelho, who is best known for his novel, The Alchemist, wrote The Archer in 2013 and the book was published as an e-book under the Portuguese title O Caminho Do Arco.
Gazoz has 153 wins in 210 international appearances.
Gazoz's medal cabinet:
- Olympics
Gold: Tokyo Olympics (Individual)
- World Championship
Gold: Berlin 2023 (Individual)
Silver: Berlin 2023 (Men's team)
Bronze: Yankton 2021 (Mixed team)
Silver: Yankton 2018 (Junior men's individual)
Bronze: Rosario 2017 (Junior mixed team)
Silver: Ankara 2016 (Junior men's team)
Silver: Wuxi 2013 (Junior men's team)
- World Cup
Bronze: Shanghai 2023 (Mixed teams)
Bronze: Paris 2022 (Men's team)
Bronze: Tlaxcala 2022 (Individual)
Bronze: Yankton 2021 (Individual)
Gold: Berlin 2019 (Individual)
Gold: Berlin 2019 (Men's team)
Bronze: Antalya 2019 (Individual)
Bronze: Antalya 2019 (Mixed team)
Silver: Shanghai 2019 (Men's team)
Silver: Shanghai 2019 (Mixed team)
Silver: Samsun 2018 (Mixed team)
Gold: Berlin 2018 (Individual)
Bronze: Berlin 2018 (Mixed team)
Bronze: Antalya 2018 (Mixed team)
Silver: Shanghai 2018 (Mixed team)
- European Championship
Bronze: Munich 2022 (Individual)
Bronze: Samsun 2019 (Men's team)
Gold: Patras 2018 (Junior men's individual)
Gold: Patras 2018 (Junior mixed team)
Gold: Patras 2018 (Junior men's team)
Silver: Nottingham 2016 (Individual)
- Other competitions
European Qualification for Tokyo Olympics
Gold: Antalya 2021 (Individual)
- European Qualification for Rio Olympics
Gold: Nottingham 2016 (Individual)
- Islamic Solidarity Games
Gold: Konya 2022 (Men's team)
Silver: Konya 2022 (Mixed team)
Bronze: Konya 2022 (Individual)
- European Grand Prix
Gold: Umag 2023 (Individual)
Gold: Umag 2023 (Men's team)
Gold: Plovdiv 2022 (Men's team)
Gold: Plovdiv 2022 (Mixed team)
Gold: Sofia 2018 (Individual)
Silver: Sofia 2018 (Mixed team)
Silver: Sofia 2016 (Individual)
- Mediterranean Games
Gold: Oran 2022 (Mixed team)
Silver: Oran 2022 (Individual)
Bronze: Oran 2022 (Men's team)
Gold: Tarragona 2018 (Individual)
- European Youth Cup
Gold: Porec 2017 (Individual)
Bronze: Porec 2017 (Men's team)
Gold: Marathon 2017 (Individual)
Gold: Marathon 2017 (Men's team)
Bronze: Marathon 2017 (Mixed team)
Silver: Klagenfurt 2015 (Individual)