Celal Atik

Celal Atik
	Atik (left) at the 1948 Olympics
Personal information
Born	1920; Gürdan, Boğazlıyan, Turkey
Died	27 April 1979 (aged 58–59); Ankara, Turkey
Sport
Sport	Wrestling
hide Medal record
Representing Turkey
Freestyle wrestling
Olympic Games
World Championships
European Championships
Greco-Roman wrestling
World Championships
European Championships

Celal Atik (1920 – 27 April 1979) was a Turkish wrestler and coach. He competed both in Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestling, but had his best achievements in the freestyle, winning gold medals at the 1948 Olympics, 1951 World and 1946 and 1949 European championships.^[1]

He was born in the village of Gürdan in the Boğazlıyan district of Yozgat Province, Turkey. He changed his family name from "Doğan" to "Atik" (literally, "Slippy") after a proposal by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic, who noticed his speed at the 1938 national championships.

After retiring from competition, from 1955 to 1979 he coached the national wrestling team and prepared multiple international competitors. Appointed the head trainer by the International Wrestling Federation (FILA) in Switzerland, he gave lessons on wrestling techniques to sportspeople from all around the world.^{[citation needed]}

He is recognized as one of Turkey's best wrestlers, with exceptional technique as well as the most aesthetic physique. In addition to his other honors, he was awarded with the Légion d'honneur of France.^{[citation needed]}

Atik died on 27 April 1979 in a hospital in Ankara. Two sports halls—one in İzmir with a capacity of 1,200 people^[2] and another one in his hometown Yozgat—are named after him.^[3]

Coaching achievements[]

1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy – champion team
1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan – 2 gold, 5 silver and 1 bronze
1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, Mexico – 2 gold
1955–1971 at all World Championships – various medals

References[]

^ Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Celal Atik". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020.
^ GençBasket Archived 20 October 2006 at the Wayback Machine (in Turkish)
^ Governor of Yozgat Archived 27 January 2007 at the Wayback Machine (in Turkish)

External links[]

Celal Atik at United World Wrestling
Celal Atik at databaseOlympics.com at the Wayback Machine (archived 31 October 2006)
Who is who (in Turkish)
Biography (in Turkish)
Story with images (in Turkish)

[sr-1] Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Celal Atik". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020.

[2] GençBasket Archived 20 October 2006 at the Wayback Machine (in Turkish)

[3] Governor of Yozgat Archived 27 January 2007 at the Wayback Machine (in Turkish)

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