Burcu Sallakoğlu (born August 13, 1987) is a Turkish female

taekwondo Taekwondo (; ; ) is a Korean martial art and combat sport involving primarily kicking techniques and punching. "Taekwondo" can be translated as ''tae'' ("strike with foot"), ''kwon'' ("strike with hand"), and ''do'' ("the art or way"). In ad ...

practitioner competing in the heavyweight (72 kg) class. She is from

Adana Adana is a large city in southern Turkey. The city is situated on the Seyhan River, inland from the northeastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. It is the administrative seat of the Adana Province, Adana province, and has a population of 1 81 ...

. She is a member of the Büyükşehir Belediye Ankara SK.

Personal life

She grew up in a family with domestic violence. Her father used to mistreat her mother. The family's financial status was very good, but there was not an atmosphere of peace. Her parents had severe cultural differences due to parentage. The family spent almost all assets for the father's therapy. Burcu's father died at the age of 35 from

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...

. Her mother made self-sacrifice, and tried to run her husband's business, however, without success. The family came into major financial diffulties. Burcu was at the age of twelve. At this time, she began with taekwondo at Adana Tezel Aslanlar, a nearby sport club, where her coach Rıdvan Kurt and his wife gave her a warm familiar atmosphere. She liked taekwondo much, which helped her to forget all the bad things she experienced before. She was educated in English-speaking schools and learnt playing the piano as her father was alive. However, she then dropped out of the high school, only to complete her secondary education in later years.

Sport career

In 2011, she left her club Adana Tezel Aslanlar, where she competed in youth and junior categories, to join the Büyükşehir Belediye Ankara SK. Burcu Sallakoğlu won the silver medal in heavyweight at the 2008 European Taekwondo Championships held in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

Achievements

* 2005 German Open -

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

-67 kg * 2008 A-Class German Open -

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

-72 kg * 2008 European Championships -

-72 kg

References

1987 births Sportspeople from Adana Living people Turkish female taekwondo practitioners Turkish female martial artists European Taekwondo Championships medalists World Taekwondo Championships medalists 20th-century Turkish sportswomen 21st-century Turkish sportswomen {{Turkey-taekwondo-bio-stub