Aysel Önder (born 24 June 2005) is a Turkish

Paralympian The Paralympic Games or Paralympics is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of disabilities. There are Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which since the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Kore ...

athlete An athlete is most commonly a person who competes in one or more sports involving physical strength, speed, power, or endurance. Sometimes, the word "athlete" is used to refer specifically to sport of athletics competitors, i.e. including track ...

. She has many world indoor and European champion titles, and is holder of several world, Paralympics and European records. She competes in the T20 disability class sprint event of 400 m.

Early years in sport

As Önder was 13 years of age, she played football. Her physical education teacher took her one day to an athletics competition with, where she came first in her first race. Later, she was taken to

cross country running Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and soil, earth, pass through woodlands and ope ...

competitions. She attracted the attention of the athletics coach Damla Tan, who contacted her parents to persuade her to switch over to athletics. As she was more interested in football playing, she practized both sports together for about one or one and half years together. Finally, chose athletics. She plays sometimes football as a hobby, together with her brothers.

Sport career

She is a member of

Enka SK Enkaspor () is a multi-sports club established in 1983 in Istanbul, Turkey by the Turkish construction conglomerate Enka Construction Co. Enkaspor's main activities are in athletics, water polo, tennis and swimming with 353 women and 467 men in ...

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

, where she is coached by Damla Tan. At the 2024 Virtus World Indoor Athletics in

Reims Reims ( ; ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French Departments of France, department of Marne (department), Marne, and the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, 12th most populous city in Fran ...

, France, she won the gold medal in the 400 m event and set a new indoor world record with 57.54. She took the silver medal in the 200 m with 25.12, and another gold medal in the 4x200 m relay, setting one more indoor world record with 1:46.82. Önder took the silver medal in the 400 m event with 55.19 at the

2024 World Para Athletics Championships The 2024 World Para Athletics Championships was a para-athletics meet organized by the World Para Athletics, the respective sport branch of the International Paralympic Committee. This was the 11th edition of the event and was held at Kobe Univ ...

Kobe Kobe ( ; , ), officially , is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. With a population of around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's List of Japanese cities by population, seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Port of Toky ...

, Japan. She captured five gold medals in total at the 2024 Virtus European Athletics Championship in

Uppsala Uppsala ( ; ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the capital of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Loc ...

, Sweden, namely in the 400 m with 57.54, in the 200 m with 24.87 setting a new European record, in the 4x100 m with 49.93 setting a new world record, in the 4x200 m mixed relay with 1:38.69 setting a new European record and in the 4x400 m relay with 4:09.91. Önder is qualified to represent her country at the

2024 Summer Paralympics The 2024 Summer Paralympics (), also known as the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games (), and branded as Paris 2024, were the 17th Summer Paralympic Games, an international Multi-sport event, multi-sport parasports event governed by the International P ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, France as the first athlete from Turkey in the 400 m T20 event. She finished the heat 2 of the 400 m T20 event on the first place, and set a new world and Paralympics record with 54.96 on 2 August 2024. In the final round, she won the silver medal with 55.23 only 0.07 seconds behind the gold medalist. As of 2024, Önder ranks second in the world list.

Personal life

Aysel Önder was born in

Hatay Hatay Province (, ) is the southernmost Provinces of Turkey, province and Metropolitan municipalities in Turkey, metropolitan municipality of Turkey. Its area is , and its population is 1,686,043 (2022). It is situated mostly outside Anatolia, ...

, southern Turkey on 24 June 2005. She completed her primary and secondary education in

İzmir İzmir is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara. It is on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of Anatolia, and is the capital of İzmir Province. In 2024, the city of İzmir had ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Onder, Aysel 2005 births Living people Sportspeople from Hatay Turkish female sprinters Female competitors in athletics with disabilities 21st-century Turkish sportswomen Enkaspor athletes Paralympic athletes for Turkey Athletes (track and field) at the 2024 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2024 Summer Paralympics Paralympic silver medalists for Turkey Paralympic medalists in athletics (track and field) Medalists at the World Para Athletics Championships