Mete Gazoz

Lore & Background

Gazoz began archery in 2010 and made his international debut in 2013. He won a silver medal in the Recurve Junior Men Team event at the 2013 World Archery Youth Championships in Wuxi, China. He participated in the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics in Nanjing, China, the 2015 European Games in Baku, Azerbaijan, and the 2015 World Archery Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark. He won a silver medal in the Recurve Cadet Men event at the European Youth Cup Circuit 2015 in Klagenfurt, Austria, and another silver medal in the Recurve Junior Men Team event at the 2016 World Indoor Archery Championships in Ankara, Turkey.

At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Gazoz won his first match on 8 August 2016 in the 1/32 tour against French archer Pierre Plihon with a score of 6–5, then lost his second match in the 1/16 tour 3–7 to Dutch archer Sjef Van den Berg. He won a bronze medal in the Junior Mixed team event with Yasemin Anagöz at the 2017 World Archery Youth Championships in Rosario, Argentina. He claimed a silver medal in the Junior Men's individual event at the 2018 World Indoor Archery Championships in Yankton, South Dakota, United States, and won gold in the individuals 70m category at the 2018 Mediterranean Games in Tarragona, Spain.

At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Gazoz defeated Luxembourg's Jeff Henckels in the first round, Australian Ryan Tyack in the second round, Australian Taylor Worth in the round of 16, world number one Brady Ellison of the United States in the quarterfinals, Japan's Takaharu Furukawa in the semifinals, and Italy's Mauro Nespoli 6–4 in the final to win the gold medal, bringing Turkey its first-ever Olympic medal in archery. He later won a bronze medal in the men's team event at the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Reader's Guide

Mete Gazoz's significance lies in his historic achievements for Turkish archery. He became the first Turkish archer to win an Olympic medal in archery, taking gold in the men's individual event at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. He followed this by winning the men's individual recurve title at the 2023 World Archery Championships in Berlin, defeating Canadian Eric Peters 6–4 in the final, making him the first Turkish archer to win a recurve gold medal at the World Championships. In 2024, he won the gold medal in the men's individual recurve event at the European Archery Championships in Essen, Germany, defeating Slovenian Den Habjan Malavašič 6–0, and also won a bronze medal in the men's team recurve event at the same championships. By holding the Olympic, World and European championships simultaneously, he became the first archer to achieve this feat. He was honored three times with the World Archery Federation's Best Men's Recurve Archer of the Year award, in 2018, 2021, and 2023. His legacy includes securing Olympic quotas for Turkey in both team and individual men's classical archery for the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Did You Know?

• He defeated world number one Brady Ellison in the quarterfinals of the 2020 Olympics.
• He became the first archer to hold the Olympic, World and European championships at the same time.