Imran Özkaya (born 16 July 1999) is a German taekwondo athlete.

Career

Özkaya took part in the

2021 European Taekwondo Championships The 2021 European Taekwondo Championships, the 24th edition of the European Taekwondo Championships, was held in Sofia, Bulgaria at the Grand Hotel Millennium Sofia from 8 to 11 April 2021. Medal summary Men Women Team ranking Men Wo ...

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...

in the under 68 kg competition, but did not place. In 2022, he won one of the bronze medals in the 63 kg weight class at the

2022 European Taekwondo Championships The 2022 European Taekwondo Championships, the 25th edition of the European Taekwondo Championships, was held in Manchester, United Kingdom at the Manchester Regional Arena from 19 to 22 May 2022. Medal table Medal summary Men Women Pa ...

held in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Özkaya competed at the World Championships in

Guadalajara Guadalajara ( , ) is a metropolis in western Mexico and the capital of the list of states of Mexico, state of Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population of 1,385,629 people, making it the 7th largest city by population in Me ...

and

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...

in 2022 and 2023 as well as the

2023 European Games The 3rd European Games ( pl, III Igrzyska Europejskie, Igrzyska Europejskie 2023), informally known as Kraków-Małopolska 2023, is a scheduled international sporting event to be held in Kraków and Małopolska, Poland in 2023. All Olympic sports h ...

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

. At the 2023 Multi European Games in

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its a ...

he claimed second place in the weight class up to 63 kg. In

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ' ...

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

, Özkaya won the gold medal in the men's -68 kg competition at the 2023

European Taekwondo Championships The European Taekwondo Championships are the European senior championships in Taekwondo, first held in Barcelona in 1976. The event is held every two years and is organized by the European Taekwondo Union, the continental affiliate of World Taekw ...

in the olympic weight classes. In March 2024, he participated in the European qualification tournament for the

Summer Olympic Games The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, where he lost to Zinedin Becovic from

Montenegro ) , image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Podgorica , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , official_languages = M ...

in the quarter-finals. He therefore did not qualify a quota place for the 68 kg weight category at the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

, as this would have required him to reach the final.

Personal life

Özkaya is a Soldier-Athlete (German: ''Sportsoldat'') with the sports promotion group of the

Bundeswehr The ''Bundeswehr'' (, meaning literally: ''Federal Defence'') is the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. The ''Bundeswehr'' is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part con ...

(German: ''Sportfördergruppe der Bundeswehr'').

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Özkaya, Imran Living people 1999 births German male taekwondo practitioners European Taekwondo Championships medalists 21st-century German people Place of birth missing (living people) European Games competitors for Germany Taekwondo practitioners at the 2023 European Games