Just on a normal sunny day in Tokyo as always, an archer drew a bow and changed the lives of a nation and himself.
The athlete, who started his international sports career in 2013, is in the 2nd place in the world ranking as of July 2021. He won the first Olympic gold medal in Turkish archery history by beating his Italian rival Mauro Nespoli 6-4 in the Men's Individual Archery category at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
He was born in 1999. His father is Metin Gazoz, a former national archer, and his mother is Meral Gazoz, the head of the Istanbul Archery Club. Mete Gazoz started archery in 2010. As a child he developed his archery skills by taking an interest in swimming, basketball, painting and piano.
Mete Gazoz, who defeated Luxembourg's Jeff Henckels in the first round match held on Thursday, 29 July at the Yumenoshima Archery Field at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and Australian Ryan Tyack in the second round competition,
advanced to the last 16. In the round of 16, he passed Australia's Taylor Worth to reach the quarter-finals. In this round, he eliminated Brady Ellison of the USA, who is number 1 in the world ranking, and made his mark in the semi-finals. Mete Gazoz, who became a finalist by defeating Japanese Takaharu Furukawa in the semi-finals, played a gold medal match with Italian Mauro Nespoli. In the final, Mete faced Italian Mauro Nespoli and won the match 6-4.
Turkey's newest Olympic gold medallist Mete Gazoz has a weapon even more deadly than his archer's bow - a beaming smile.
Gazoz's gold was a Turkish first in archery, a sport where fierce concentration is the watchword and South Koreans usually monopolize the titles.
"Imagine you're in the Olympic final, drawing your bow and some dude behind you is grinning from ear to ear. I owe 80% of this medal to the smile," he told Reuters, a large gold medal around his slender neck.
Mete Gazoz, who went to a swimming course until the age of 8 for shoulder development, played basketball for coordination, went to a painting course for 1 year to improve his eyesight and attention skills, and took piano training for 2 years for eye and hand coordination, is a 22-year-old Olympic champion today!
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