Sibel Özkan (born March 3, 1988 in

Afyonkarahisar Afyonkarahisar (, tr, afyon "poppy, opium", ''kara'' "black", ''hisar'' "fortress") is a city in western Turkey, the capital of Afyon Province. Afyon is in the mountainous countryside inland from the Aegean coast, south-west of Ankara along th ...

) is a

Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...

weightlifter Olympic weightlifting, or Olympic-style weightlifting (officially named Weightlifting), is a sport in which athletes compete in lifting a barbell loaded with weight plates from the ground to overhead, with each athlete trying to successfully lift ...

competing in the Women's 48 kg division. She is tall and weighs . She initially won the silver medal in the 48 kg event at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

, but in 2016 her result was annulled due to a doping violation upon reanalysis of samples from 2008.

Personal life

She was born on March 3, 1988 to Ramazan and his wife to Kezban in Kozluca village of

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

as the youngest of three siblings. As she was three years of age, her parents divorced. Unable to look after her children, the mother placed Sİbel's brother Bülent, at that time four years old, and Özgür, who was five years old, into a children's dormitory in Afyonkarahisar. However, Sibel had to be moved to another city, since the orphanage was only for boys. She was put in a children's home in

Konya Konya () is a major city in central Turkey, on the southwestern edge of the Central Anatolian Plateau, and is the capital of Konya Province. During antiquity and into Seljuk times it was known as Iconium (), although the Seljuks also called it D ...

. Her mother Kezban Özkan died one year after she placed her children in orphanages. Sibel's brothers joined her in the same

orphanage An orphanage is a Residential education, residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the Childcare, care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared for by their biological families. The parent ...

in Konya two years later. As she was 13 years of age, Sibel shifted to another orphanage in the same city. There, she started to perform sports with

judo is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponi ...

. However, her interest changed soon to

weightlifting Weightlifting generally refers to activities in which people lift Weight training#Equipment, weights, often in the form of dumbbells or barbells. People lift various kinds of weights for a variety of different reasons. These may include various t ...

despite her brother's opposition. She was trained by Süreyya Horasanlı and Sami Özsu, becoming successful at national and international championships in the 48 kg category. Sibel is member of the weightlifting-specialized sports club of Kuyulusebil Halter İhtisas S.K. in Konya. After finishing the high school at the age of 18, she attended

Gaziosmanpaşa University Gaziosmanpaşa (; old name: ''Taşlıtarla'') is a developing working class municipality (belediye) and district of Istanbul, Turkey, on its European side. With a population of 400,000 plus, it is one of the most populous districts. In 2009 Gazios ...

Tokat Tokat is the capital city of Tokat Province of Turkey in the mid-Black Sea region of Anatolia. It is located at the confluence of the Tokat River (Tokat Suyu) with the Yeşilırmak. In the 2018 census, the city of Tokat had a population of 155,00 ...

to study

physical education Physical education, often abbreviated to Phys Ed. or P.E., is a subject taught in schools around the world. It is usually taught during primary and secondary education, and encourages psychomotor learning by using a play and movement explorati ...

and sports, where she is still a student. In 2009, Sibel married to Ömer Öz, a medal-winning Turkish weightlifter, whom she was engaged to since 2006. The couple separated the same year.

Achievements and honours

After coming fourth in the snatch event at the

2007 World Weightlifting Championships - Women's 48 kg 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is the only prime number preceding a cube (algebra), cube. As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has greatly symbolic associations in religion ...

, she won her first Olympics silver medal in the

Beijing Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

on August 9, 2008, held at the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics Gymnasium coming second to the then winner of the

Xiexia Chen Chen Xiexia (; born January 8, 1983, in Panyu District, Panyu, Guangzhou, Guangdong) is a PR China, Chinese Olympic weightlifting, weightlifter. Career She won three golds at the 2007 World Weightlifting Championships. and the first gold medal ...

. Sibel won the silver medal with 111.0 kg in the Clean and Jerk achieving 199.0 kg in total. Achieving 117.0 kg in the 48 kg Clean and Jerk category at the

2009 World Weightlifting Championships The World Weightlifting Championships 2009 was held in Goyang, South Korea. The event took place from November 20 to November 29, 2009. Medal summary Men Women Medal table Ranking by Big (Total result) medals Ranking by all medals: Big (T ...

held in

Goyang Goyang (''Goyang-si''; ) is a city in Gyeonggi Province in the north of South Korea. It is part of the Seoul Capital Area, making Goyang one of Seoul's satellite cities. It is one of the largest cities in the Seoul Capital Area, with a populatio ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

, Sibel Özkan became Turkey's first ever female gold medalist in weightlifting at world championships.

Doping case

In 2016, the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...

requested the return of the silver medal that she won at the

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, China, due to her failing a repeated

drug test A drug test is a technical analysis of a biological specimen, for example urine, hair, blood, breath, sweat, or oral fluid/saliva—to determine the presence or absence of specified parent drugs or their metabolites. Major applications of drug ...

for using

Stanozolol Stanozolol (Abbreviation, abbrev. Stz), sold under many brand names, is an androgen and anabolic steroid (AAS) medication derived from dihydrotestosterone (DHT). It is used to treat hereditary angioedema. It was developed by American pharmaceuti ...

Stats and records

;

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 ...

: ;

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

: ;

European Championships The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...

: ;

Mediterranean Games The Mediterranean Games is a multi-sport event organised by the International Committee of Mediterranean Games (CIJM). It is held every four years among athletes from countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea in Africa, Asia and Europe. The fir ...

: Legend: * ERJ European Record Juniors

References

External links

Beijing 2008 Athlete Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ozkan, Sibel 1988 births People from Afyonkarahisar Living people Weightlifters at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic weightlifters of Turkey World Weightlifting Championships medalists Turkish female weightlifters European champions for Turkey Doping cases in weightlifting Turkish sportspeople in doping cases Competitors stripped of Summer Olympics medals Mediterranean Games silver medalists for Turkey Competitors at the 2005 Mediterranean Games Competitors at the 2013 Mediterranean Games Mediterranean Games medalists in weightlifting European Weightlifting Championships medalists 21st-century Turkish sportswomen