Uğur Erdener was born on 25 June 1950 in Trabzon. Upon completion of his elementary school education in Van, he attended the secondary school in Bandırma and graduated from the Gazi High School in Ankara. Having had dreamed of becoming a physician since his childhood, he enrolled in the School of Medicine of the Hacettepe University, which he believed that offered the best medical education in the country. After graduating with his medical degree in 1977, he completed a residency in Ophthalmology at Hacettepe University.
Uğur Erdener has spent all of his professional life, both as a physician and as a faculty member at the School of Medicine of the Hacettepe University. He became an Associate Professor in 1996 and Professor of Ophthalmology with specialization in Oculoplastic Surgery in 2001. Prof.Dr. Uğur Erdener became the General Director and CEO of the Hacettepe University Hospitals and later, in 2007, he was elected and appointed Rector of the University and served as such until 2011. Prof.Dr. Uğur Erdener, served as an Academic at the Department of Ophthalmology for 40 years, has published over 70 articles in both foreign and domestic journals.
Sport has been a significant aspect of Uğur Erdener’s life. In his sports career, starting as an amateur athlete and successfully surpassing all the phases, he managed to attain the top positions in sports on international level that any Turkish sportsperson had ever accomplished. He was a renowned athlete in the triple jump and later a basketball player, where he became a successful coach for many years. Starting with the Chair of amateur sports disciplines at Hacettepe University Sports Club, he assumed important roles in sports administration as a club administrator, including professional football.
Erdener, bearing responsibilities in Turkish archery since 1982, served as the President of the Turkish Archery Federation for four terms over a span of 23 years until 2005. During this period, he received numerous awards from various national organizations for his contributions to sports and served the Ministry of Youth and Sports as a Ministerial Advisor. He served as the President of the European and Mediterranean Archery Union (EMAU) for five years and, in 2005, he became the first Turkish sportsperson to be elected as the President of an International Federation of an Olympic Sport: the International Archery Federation (now World Archery). He was re-elected as World Archery President for a second term in 2009, a third term in 2013 and for a fourth four-year term in 2017.
Prof. Dr. Ugur Erdener is the President of the Turkish Olympic Committee (TOC) since 2011 and an International Olympic Committee (IOC) member since 2008. He was elected an Executive Board member in 2014, the Vice President of the IOC in 2016 and served as the Vice President until 2020. He concurrently chairs the IOC Medical and Scientific Commission and Youth Olympic Games (YOG) Advisory Committee. Erdener also serves as an Executive Committee and Foundation Board Member of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and chairs WADA’s Health, Medical and Research (HMR) Committee. Since 2017, Ugur Erdener is the IOC Representative in the International Testing Agency (ITA) Board. Erdener was elected as ASOIF Council Member in 2014 and then Vice President in 2017.