After Rio 2016, Mete Gazoz made himself a now-famous promise on Twitter: that he would win the gold medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Plenty of archers have made similar statements, but Mete did manifest that gold, and changed the course of archery – and sport in his home country.
Now the Turkish men’s team have won their country its first Olympic team medal in any sport – ever.
On a blazing hot, noisy day in front of huge crowds in Paris, Gazoz with teammates Berkim Tumer and Abdullah Yildirmis have opened yet another chapter in history, after beating Colombia, India and then China for bronze – losing out only to a surging France. It was close at times, but the quality, and self-belief showed.
But Mete wasn’t the only one with a big dream. His coach Goktug Ergin had told this author directly in Tokyo, just moments after Mete’s win, of the next phase of the plan: to bring a men’s team to Paris.
At the time, it seemed like just another goal. But he made it happen.
“It was the biggest dream in my life when I started coaching,” said Goktug. “I was dreaming to have three good men. I was dreaming to be able to compete with the world.”
“In Tokyo it was only Mete, before then we never had an Olympic medal and I was always saying if we get any medal, Mete will be the first one because he was so talented. He was ready to work and he never complained. He was always focusing on what he needs to do to win.”
“Now it’s time to step up to work for the team,” the head coach told Mete after Tokyo. “He just converted himself to be a team leader.”
“It really started two years ago when they won their first bronze medal in the World Cup stage in Paris. Then they started to believe in each other, and they won the silver at the Berlin 2023 World Archery Championships.”
Stage by stage, the plan unfolded.
“We worked very very hard for this, we train very hard and definitely didn’t come as a surprise,” said Yildirmis. “We did make history, and we will work hard and we will continue to do more.”
The team claimed they would shoot up to 800 arrows a day in training.
The Turkish men use an in/out format where Gazoz starts and finishes the set, which sets him up even more strongly as the leader.
“Mete starts the set because he’s the most experienced one,” explained Goktug. “The others can make mistake under this kind of circumstances, under this kind of pressure, but he can handle it.”
The communication was very visible.
“It’s not easy for myself as a coach to reach the archers in every arrow. Mete keep talking with them and waiting until the last arrow and uses his experience to finish the set.”
The hard and relentless discipline required to take an Olympic medal was mentioned by all three men's teams afterwards. It’s also perhaps notable that all three men’s teams on the podium in Paris – Türkiye, France and Korea – feature one older, more experienced Olympian and two younger archers.
When a plan is executed and backed up with a careful strategy and hours of hard work, winning a medal is indeed not a surprise – and it may not be the only medal we see from Türkiye here in Paris.
