Ferhat Arıcan (born 28 July 1993) is a Turkish

artistic gymnast Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics in which athletes perform short routines on different types of apparatus. The sport is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), which assigns the '' Code of Points'' used ...

. He represented Turkey at the

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

and

2020 Olympic Games The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

. At the 2020 Olympic Games he became the first Turkish gymnast to win an Olympic medal, winning bronze on the parallel bars.

Personal life

Arıcan was born in

Konak, İzmir Konak is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of İzmir Province, Turkey. Its area is 24 km2, and its population is 332,277 (2022). It is the most densely populated of the thirty districts of İzmir, and has historically acted as t ...

in 1993. He took up gymnastics when he was 9–10 years old. He studied sports administration at

Ege University Ege University or Aegean University () is a public research university in Bornova, İzmir. It was founded in 1955 with the faculties of Medicine and Agriculture. It is the first university to start courses in İzmir and the fourth oldest unive ...

Gymnastics career

2010–2013

Arıcan was selected to represent Turkey at the inaugural Youth Olympic Games. He won silver on vault behind Ganbatyn Erdenebold of Mongolia. He would make his senior debut at the 2010 World Championships later that year and also competed at the 2011 World Championships. Arıcan competed at the 2013 European Championships where he finished 23rd in the all-around. At the

2013 Mediterranean Games The 2013 Mediterranean Games (), officially known as the XVII Mediterranean Games () and commonly known as Mersin 2013, was an international multi-sport event held from 20 to 30 June 2013 in Mersin, Turkey. Mersin was announced as the host cit ...

he won bronze on parallel bars.

2014–2016

Arıcan competed at the 2014 World Championships in Nanning, China. He was originally a reserve athlete for the all-around; however he was called up to compete when

Alexander Shatilov Alexander "Alex" Shatilov (, ; born March 22, 1987) is a USSR-born Israeli artistic gymnast. He specializes in the floor exercise, in which he won several medals at World and European Championships, reached the finals at the 2008 and 2012 Summe ...

withdrew. He placed twenty-third. At the 2015 European Championships Arıcan placed 24th in the all-around and seventh on parallel bars. At the

2015 European Games The 1st European Games (), also known as the 2015 European Games or Baku 2015 (), were the inaugural edition of the European Games, an international multi-sport event for athletes representing the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) of the Europe ...

he placed eleventh in the all-around and sixth on vault and parallel bars. At the

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 ...

he placed 53rd in the all-around during qualifications. Arıcan competed at the Olympic Test Event in early 2016 where he earned an individual berth to compete at the upcoming

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

. In doing so he became the first Turkish male gymnast in 108 to qualify to compete at the Olympics after

Aleko Mulos Aleko Mulos (), also written Moullos, was an Olympian Ottoman Empire, Ottoman gymnastics, gymnast of Ottoman Greeks, Greek descent. It is known that he studied at the French-language Galatasaray High School in Istanbul, and performed gymnastics ...

did so in

1908 This is the longest year in either the Julian or Gregorian calendars, having a duration of 31622401.38 seconds of Terrestrial Time (or ephemeris time), measured according to the definition of mean solar time. Events January * January ...

. At the

2016 Olympic Games The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

Arıcan placed 41st in the all-around during qualifications and did not qualify for any event finals.

2017–2019

At the 2017 European Championships Arıcan placed eighth in the all-around and on pommel horse and placed seventh on the parallel bars. He competed at the

2017 Islamic Solidarity Games The 4th Islamic Solidarity Games () was a multinational, multi-sport event that was held in Baku, Azerbaijan, from May 12 to 22, 2017. Previously, the event was held in Saudi Arabia in 2005 and Indonesia in 2013. The second event, originally sch ...

alongside Ahmet Önder and İbrahim Çolak; they finished first as a team. Individually Arıcan placed first on parallel bars and second on horizontal bar. At the 2017 World Championships Arıcan placed twentieth in the all-around and also qualified to his first apparatus event final, the parallel bars. He finished eighth on the event. Arıcan competed at the 2018 World Cups in Baku and Doha and the World Challenge Cups in Koper and Mersin; he earned five bronze medals. At the

2018 Mediterranean Games The 2018 Mediterranean Games (, ), officially known as the XVIII Mediterranean Games (, ) and commonly known as Tarragona 2018, was an international multi-sport event held from 22 June to 1 July 2018 in Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain. Tarragona was ...

he helped Turkey place second as a team and individually he won bronze on the parallel bars. Arıcan placed nineteenth in the all-around at the 2018 World Championships. Arıcan competed at the 2019 World Cups in Melbourne, Baku, and Doha. At the 2019 European Championships He placed tenth in the all-around and fifth on pommel horse but won his first European medal, a bronze on parallel bars. Arıcan next competed at the

2019 European Games The 2nd European Games 2019 (, ''Jeŭrapiejskija huĺni 2019''; , ''Yevropeyskiye igry 2019''), also known as the 2019 European Games or Minsk 2019 (; ), were held in Minsk, Belarus, from 21 June to 30 June 2019. The games featured 200 events in ...

where he won another bronze on parallel bars. At the 2019 World Championships he placed fifth on the event.

2020–2021

Arıcan competed at the 2020 Baku World Cup; however the competition was canceled after qualifications due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Many other competitions were either canceled or postponed throughout the year. In December the

European Championships A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. In the plural, the European Championships also refers t ...

were held. Arıcan helped Turkey win the silver medal behind Ukraine in the team competition. Individually Arıcan won gold on the parallel bars and bronze on pommel horse. Arıcan defended his parallel bars title at the 2021 European Championships. He also picked up gold medals on the apparatus at the 2021 Osijek Challenge Cup and the Doha World Cup. Arıcan competed at the postponed-

in Tokyo. He won the bronze medal on the parallel bars behind

Zou Jingyuan Zou Jingyuan ( zh, s=邹敬园 , t=邹敬园 , p=Zōu Jìngyuán, born 3 January 1998) is a Chinese artistic gymnast who specializes in parallel bars and rings. He is a two-time Olympic champion on parallel bars, winning gold at the 2020 and 2 ...

and Lukas Dauser. With this medal he became the first athlete representing Turkey to earn an Olympic Medal in artistic gymnastics.

2022–2024

Arıcan began the year competing at the 2022 World Cups in Cottbus, Cairo, and Baku and the World Challenge Cup in Osijek; he earned one gold medal and two silver medals on the parallel bars. He competed at the

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 fi ...

where he helped Turkey win gold in the team competition. Additionally he won gold on parallel bars and bronze on pommel horse. Arıcan next competed at the

Islamic Solidarity Games The Islamic Solidarity Games () is a multinational, multi-sport event. Managed jointly by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and Islamic Solidarity Sports Association (ISSA), the Games involve elite athletes of the OIC competing in a ...

alongside Adem Asil and Ahmet Önder; together they won gold as a team. Individually Arıcan once again won gold on parallel bars and bronze on pommel horse. He next competed at the

2022 European Championships The 2022 European Championships were the second edition of the European Championships (multi-sport event), European Championships. It was a multi-sport event which took place in Munich, Germany from 11 to 21 August 2022. The event started three d ...

where he helped Turkey win team bronze behind Great Britain and Italy. Individually Arıcan placed fifth on pommel horse and seventh on the parallel bars. At the 2022 World Championships he placed fourth on parallel bars. At the 2023 European Championships Arıcan helped Turkey place second Italy; individually he won silver on the parallel bars behind

Illia Kovtun Illia Yuriiovych Kovtun (; born 10 August 2003) is a Ukrainian Artistic gymnastics, artistic gymnast. He is the 2023 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, 2023 World all-around silver medalist and 2021 World Artistic Gymnastics Championship ...

. At the 2023 World Championships Arıcan helped Turkey finished 10th as a team during qualifications; in doing so, Turkey qualified a full team to the Olympic Games for the first time. Arıcan was selected to represent

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

and the

2024 Olympic Games The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

alongside Adem Asil, İbrahim Çolak, Emre Dodanlı, and Ahmet Önder. During the qualification round Turkey finished ninth. Individually Arıcan qualified to the parallel bars final where he finished fifth.

2025

Arıcan competed at various

World Cups A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

and World Challenge Cups in 2025, winning gold on parallel bars in Antalya and Varna and bronze in Osijek.

Competitive history

References

External links

* *
Ferhat Arican
at the

Paris 2024 Summer Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Arican, Ferhat 1993 births Living people Turkish male artistic gymnasts European champions in gymnastics Olympic gymnasts for Turkey Olympic bronze medalists for Turkey Olympic medalists in gymnastics Gymnasts at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics Gymnasts at the 2016 Summer Olympics Gymnasts at the 2020 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics European Games competitors for Turkey European Games bronze medalists for Turkey European Games medalists in gymnastics Gymnasts at the 2015 European Games Gymnasts at the 2019 European Games Mediterranean Games competitors for Turkey Mediterranean Games gold medalists for Turkey Mediterranean Games silver medalists for Turkey Mediterranean Games bronze medalists for Turkey Mediterranean Games medalists in gymnastics Competitors at the 2013 Mediterranean Games Gymnasts at the 2018 Mediterranean Games Gymnasts at the 2022 Mediterranean Games Islamic Solidarity Games gold medalists for Turkey Islamic Solidarity Games medalists in gymnastics Medalists at the 2021 Islamic Solidarity Games Sportspeople from Konak Gymnasts from İzmir 21st-century Turkish sportsmen Gymnasts at the 2024 Summer Olympics