Döndü Yeşilyurt (born 20 December 1993) is a Turkish world and European champion female

visually impaired Visual or vision impairment (VI or VIP) is the partial or total inability of visual perception. In the absence of treatment such as corrective eyewear, assistive devices, and medical treatment, visual impairment may cause the individual difficul ...

judoka is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, combat sport, 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 Encyc ...

competing in the −57 kg division. She is also a national para weightlifter.

Sport career

While in

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

for university study, Yeşilyurt decided to perform

arm wrestling Arm wrestling (also spelled "armwrestling") is a sport in which two participants, facing each other with their bent elbows placed on a flat surface (usually a table) and hands firmly gripped, each attempt to "pin" their opponent's hand by forcing ...

. For this reason, she searched for organizations serving visually impaired people unaware of knowing about the sport clubs specialized for disabled people. In 2016, a weightlifting coach for visually impaired sportspeople she met, recommended her to start weightlifting sport. She had a strong physical body structure she had developed in village life. Already in 2017, she became Turkish champion. This time, her coach encouraged her for judo, and she performed both weightlifting and judo. In February 2017, she became the runner-up at the Turkish Para Judo Championship. She was then admitted to the Turkey national para judo team. A few months later that year, she debuted internationally at a tournament in Latvia winning her first medal as runner-up. At the 2018 IBSA Powerlifting and Bench Press World Championships in

Luxor Luxor is a city in Upper Egypt. Luxor had a population of 263,109 in 2020, with an area of approximately and is the capital of the Luxor Governorate. It is among the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited c ...

, Egypt, she took gold medal in

bench press The bench press or chest press is a weight training exercise where a person presses a weight upwards while lying horizontally on a weight training bench. The bench press is a Compound movements, compound movement, with the primary muscles involved ...

and the silver medal in

powerlifting Powerlifting is a competitive strength athletics, strength sport that consists of three attempts at maximal weight on three lifts: Squat (exercise), squat, bench press, and deadlift. As in the sport of Olympic weightlifting, it involves the athle ...

. In 2022, she became world champion at the IBSA Judo World Championship in

Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...

, Azerbaijan. At the

2023 European Para Championships The 2023 European Para Championships were the first edition of the European Para Championships held between 8 and 20 August 2023 in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Sports The following competitions took place: Venues Events will be held at the follow ...

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

, Netherlands, she won the gold medal in the −57 Ü J1 event.

Personal life

Döndü Yeşilyurt was born at Kızlar village of

Alaçam Alaçam is a municipality and district of Samsun Province, Turkey. Its area is 598 km2, and its population is 24,647 (2022). Scholars believe that Alaçam is the site of the ancient city of Zaliche or Zaliches. History Alaçam has a long h ...

district in

Samsun Province Samsun Province () is a province and metropolitan municipality of Turkey on the Black Sea coast. Its area is 9,725 km2, and its population is 1,368,488 (2022). Its adjacent provinces are Sinop on the northwest, Çorum on the west, Amasy ...

, Turkey's Black Sea Region on 20 December 1993. She grew up in the village before her father moved the family to

Bursa Bursa () is a city in northwestern Turkey and the administrative center of Bursa Province. The fourth-most populous city in Turkey and second-most populous in the Marmara Region, Bursa is one of the industrial centers of the country. Most of ...

in 2007. She learned about her eye disorder

retinitis pigmentosa Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a member of a group of genetic disorders called inherited retinal dystrophy (IRD) that cause loss of vision. Symptoms include trouble seeing at night and decreasing peripheral vision (side and upper or lower visua ...

, which caused 50% loss of eyesight. She stated that "before she started performing sports, she stepped out home only to go to the school". She told further that "if she had not been visually impaired, she would pursue a career as a soldier or a policewoman". After finishing the high school, she studied at

Gazi University Gazi University () is a Public university, public research university located primarily in Ankara, Turkey. It was founded in 1926 by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk originally as the Gazi Education Institute (Turkish language, Turkish: ''Gazi Eğitim Ens ...

to become a

tour guide A tour guide (U.S.) or a tourist guide (European) is a person who provides assistance, and information on cultural, historical and contemporary heritage to people on organized sightseeing and individual clients at educational establishments, rel ...

. For living, she started to work in the Provincial Directoriate of Youth and Sports in Ankara.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yesilyurt, Dondu 1993 births Living people People from Alaçam Sportspeople from Samsun Province Gazi University alumni Sportspeople from Samsun Turkish blind people Turkish female judoka Turkish female weightlifters 20th-century Turkish women 21st-century Turkish sportswomen Visually impaired-category Paralympic competitors Medalists at the European Para Championships