6.06.2022
Olympic Champion Boxer Busenaz Sürmeneli, National Judokas Bilal Çiloğlu and Feyyaz Yazıcı among participants.
Nearly one thousand children today joined Turkish Olympians in celebrating Olympic Day at a special sports event held in Maltepe Beach Orhangazi City Park, Istanbul.
The event was organized in cooperation between the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality’s Sports Istanbul, Istanbul Provincial Directorate of Youth and Sports, and the Turkish Olympic Committee (TOC) with the support of Trendyol, a leading e-commerce platform in Turkey and a subsidiary of Olympic Top Partner Alibaba Group.
The Olympic Day event, held under the global motto of "Move, Learn, Discover – Together for a better world", saw the participation of Olympic and World Champion Boxer Busenaz Sürmeneli, Olympic Judoka Bilal Çiloğlu and National Judoka Feyyaz Yazıcı. The athletes shared their inspiring experiences with the children and the participants also had the chance to enjoy basketball, boxing, racquetball, athletics, judo, skateboarding, archery, and volleyball.
TOC Secretary-General Neşe Gündoğan said, “Istanbul has huge potential in its young population and successfully organizes many sports events and cultural events in every corner of the city. We are proud to organize such a beautiful event here in Istanbul. We do our best to introduce our children to sports in every region of our country and make sports an important part of their lives. In this sense, the Olympic Day is one of our activities where we can touch most children through sports. Our country has great joy and enthusiasm for its children and youth. We are very happy to celebrate this day and give them the opportunity to try new sports on this occasion. We would like to thank our partners for their great support for Olympic Day”
Following certificate distribution, signed by IOC President Thomas Bach and TOC President Prof. Uğur Erdener; Busenaz Sürmeneli expressed her happiness to practice sports with children and accompany them on a day where they embraced sports culture and Olympic values.
“I am sure these Olympic Day events will promote sports culture among children across the country and today’s participating children and young kids who discovered their favorite sport in these festivals may represent our country on the Olympic level,” Bilal Çiloğlu said.