Early July marks the beginning of the "Kirkpinar", a centuries-old oil wrestling festival in Edirne, north-west Turkey. A traditional Turkish form of wrestling, the sport sees athletes compete while doused in olive oil. "This is our Olympic Games, the home ground of our ancestors", says Murat Kalender, a 27-year-old wrestler hungry to win.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Atatürk, number 2.
00:05Yusuf Can Zeybek, with his wife Kürşat Şevki.
00:09Serhat Gökmen, Mustafa Batu, Süleyman Başarla.
00:16Faruk Akkoyun, number 8.
00:19Hasan Cengiz.
00:21Kırkpınar is a historical tradition for us.
00:33Our ancestral sport, the first airfield of the Turks.
00:37It is a very big organization.
00:40It is a very big olympiad for us.
00:43Whatever Minder's olympiad is, our olympiad is Kırkpınar, Edirne, Sarayiçi.
00:51Yusuf Can Zeybek, with his wife Kürşat Şevki.
01:09I had a shoulder operation.
01:11I had a 17 cm tear in my Achilles tendon last year.
01:14After that, I had a rib fracture, a knee ligament tear.
01:19I had 3 surgeries before.
01:22But despite that, we love this job.
01:25We have worked hard for 20 years.
01:27It is not easy.