Turkey

[uakari]

is turkey the new qatar/bahrain? what's up with all the ethiopians and kenyans changing allegiance to turkey?

also historically, didn't turkey get a lot of its athletes from the former soviet union? is turkey just flush with cash and buying these athletes, or is it just a good place to live?

is there a list of these foreign athletes that have competed for turkey?

[andyjgt]

Re: Turkey

I don't know if Turkey became awash with money, I think its clubs just wanted to become successful in Europe and needed to improve, in the short term at least (though it has lasted) imports were the easiest way.

Those I know of (not including recent Kenyans - and including some who reverted back):

From Ethiopia:

Late 90s:
Elvan Abeylegesse (formerly Elvan Can)
Alemitu Bekele Degfa (formerly Colakoglu)
Tezeta Dengersa (formerly Nuray Surekli)
Sibel Ozyurt (don't know original name)

Late 00s:
Mert Girmalegese (formerly Selim Bayrak, nee Girma Legese)
Sultan Haydar (Chaltu Girma)
Meryem Erdogan (don't know original name)

From Russia/Belarus:

Ebru Kavaklioglu (formerly Yelena Kopytova, apparently took the name of sprinter Cengiz Kavaklioglu, though she actually married her Russian coach Anatoliy Bychkov, who didn't change his name)
Anzhela Atroshchenko-Kinet
Svetlana Kandemir (nee Kanatova)
Svetlana Sudak (took several years to switch country)

Tatyana Polnova (nee Zaykova, competed as Tuna Kostem before reverting back on marrying coach Sergey Polnov)
Oksana Belyakova (nee Zheleznyak, competed as Aysen Barak before reverting)
Oksana Tuchak (nee Andrusina, took the surname Mert in Turkey, reverted on marrying fellow Russian DT Igor Tuchak)

Yanina Korolchik (did not switch country, but competed as Yanina Colakoglu in Turkey, this was before she added Pravalinskaya)

From Bulgaria:

Svetla Mitkova-Sinirtas ('99)
Aysel Shevkedova-Tas (early 90s)
Metin Dormushev-Durmusoglu ('99)
Nora Ivanova-Guner (early 00s - later Edletzberger AUT!)

From Romania: Mirela Dulgheru-Renda ('98)

From South Africa: Karin Melis Mey ('08)

Many athletes from all these countries (except RSA) have competed in Turkey without taking citizenship.

Ukrainian 2009 EJ 400 champ Yuliya Baraley is the girlfriend of Ramil Guliyev and I would not be surprised if she switched in the future, though she ran (for Ukraine) at the EU23s.

They also imported several Ukrainian swimmers before the Beijing games, the biggest name was probably medley swimmer Dmytro Nazarenko who took the name Deniz Nazar. And of course there are footballers like Mehmet (Marco) Aurelio of Brazil.

[uakari]

Re: Turkey

wow, that's quite a list. thanks for the info.

i'm a bit confused, did all of the above compete for turkey internationally (but not necessarily take turkish citizenship), or just competed for turkish clubs?

btw, azerbaijan is another country that is using its oil money to get new athletes (mostly ethiopians).

[uakari]

Re: Turkey

From Bulgaria:

Nora Ivanova-Guner (early 00s - later Edletzberger AUT!)

well, there's also the pairs figure skater yuko kawaguchi, who has represented 3 countries in her career: japan, US and (now) russia. actually not sure if she represented in the US but i saw that she competed in the US champs in the past.

[andyjgt]

Re: Turkey

Of those, all but Korolchik-Pravalinskaya switched to compete for Turkey. I think they were given the option (possibly having to take 'arranged' marriages to get their new nationality, hence Abeylegesse competed as Elvan Can for a period), partly because I think (at least in the ECCC, not sure about domestically) teams can only have two non-citizens.

Many others did the same as her, I mentioned her specifically because she competed under a Turkish surname. (Tsvetelina Kirilova was the only other whom I know to have done so without switching, she used Polat, I think it was taken from Serhat Polat, a 1:50 800 man, though I don't know if they married.)

Merlene Ottey actually was recruited just for one race! Ionela Tirlea was probably the biggest name to compete for a Turkish club but keep her nationality and name. Lalova (despite now living in Italy), Ryemyen and Yefremova do the same at the moment and Krevsun has done in recent years.

[andyjgt]

Re: Turkey

From Bulgaria:

Nora Ivanova-Guner (early 00s - later Edletzberger AUT!)

well, there's also the pairs figure skater yuko kawaguchi, who has represented 3 countries in her career: japan, US and (now) russia. actually not sure if she represented in the US but i saw that she competed in the US champs in the past.

Add another to the list - Yamile Aldama! (if she starts in Daegu)

There was a canoeist, Nikolay Zhuravskiy (Nicolae Juravschii in Romanian), who competed for the USSR (with a Belarusian partner) in 1988, Romania in 1992 and Moldova in 1996!

[uakari]

Re: Turkey

also abduvaliyev (soviet union, then tajikistan , then uzbekistan).