Taner Sağır (born 13 March 1985 in

Kardzhali Kardzhali ( bg, Кърджали , ''Kărdžali''; tr, Kırcaali; gr, Κάρτζαλι, ''Kártzali''), sometimes spelt Kardžali or Kurdzhali, is a town in the Eastern Rhodopes in Bulgaria, centre of Kardzhali Municipality and Kardzhali Pro ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

) is a Turkish world and

Olympic weightlifting 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 lif ...

champion. Coming into

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

as holder of all the junior world records at the age of only 19, he broke the Olympic records in the category –77 kg snatch, clean and jerk and total. He is seen as a great talent by authorities.

Early years

He was born in Bulgaria to parents of Turkish ethnicity. In 1989, the family emigrated to Turkey where they settled first in the Batıkent neighborhood of

Yenimahalle, Ankara Yenimahalle is a metropolitan district of Ankara Province in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey, a fast-growing urban residential district of the city of Ankara, Turkey's capital. According to 2010 census, population of the urban center is 64 ...

before later moving to

Pursaklar, Ankara Pursaklar is a metropolitan district in the province of Ankara, the capital of Turkey. It became a town municipality in 1987, and a district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local gove ...

. In 1994, Taner began weightlifting in Pursaklar. Taner Sağır is the younger brother of Olympic weightlifter Nezir Sağır.

Sports career

Sağır, 1.70 m tall, is a student of physical education and sports. Muharrem Süleymanoğlu and Osman Nuri Vural coach him at the Demirspor Club in

Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...

, Turkey. As he is somewhat baby-faced, he was in a few commercials at the Athens Olympics in 2004. He did not finish after three failures in the snatch event at the 2008 Summer Olympics. He has not competed in a major event since 2008, owing to a spinal disc injury

Family life

On 30 August 2008 he married

Sibel Güler Sibel Güler Sağır (born September 28, 1984, in Bulgaria) is a Turkish taekwondo practitioner. She is a four-time medalist and two-time defending champion at the European Taekwondo Championships since 2004. She also claimed the middleweight div ...

, a two-time European taekwondo champion and also an immigrant from Bulgaria. The couple has a child. The family resides in Ankara on a street named after him.

Medals

Olympics World Championships European Championships *Y: Youth (under 16) *J: Junior *JWR: Junior World record

World rank

2004 World ranking list for the category "Men 77 kg" is as following:

References

External links

Taner Sağır at Lift Up
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sagir, Taner 1985 births Living people Turkish male weightlifters Bulgarian Turks in Turkey Bulgarian emigrants to Turkey Olympic weightlifters of Turkey Olympic gold medalists for Turkey Weightlifters at the 2004 Summer Olympics Weightlifters at the 2008 Summer Olympics People from Kardzhali Olympic medalists in weightlifting European champions in weightlifting Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics European champions for Turkey European Weightlifting Championships medalists World Weightlifting Championships medalists