Sümeyye Özcan (born 15 January 1992) is a Turkish female

middle distance runner Middle Distance Runner was an American indie rock band from Washington, D.C. Middle Distance Runner was founded in 1998, but the band didn't play a live show until 2005, shortly before the release of their debut album. The group was an early succ ...

and

goalball Goalball is a team sport designed specifically for athletes with a visual impairment, vision impairment. Participants compete in teams of three, and try to throw a ball with bells embedded inside it into the opponents' goal. The ball is throw ...

player in the B1 class. She is a member of the national team.

Early years

Sümeyye Özcan was born totally blind in

Malatya Malatya (; ; Syriac language, Syriac ܡܠܝܛܝܢܐ Malīṭīná; ; Ancient Greek: Μελιτηνή) is a city in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey and the capital of Malatya Province. The city has been a human settlement for thousands of y ...

, Turkey on 15 January 1992. Her elder sister as well as her younger sibling is also blind. Because there was no proper facilities for schooling blind children in Malatya, the family moved to

Kahramanmaraş Kahramanmaraş (), historically Marash (; ) and Germanicea (), is a city in the Mediterranean Region, Turkey, Mediterranean region of Turkey and the administrative centre of Kahramanmaraş Province, Kahramanmaraş province. After 1973, Maraş was ...

in 2001. She completed her education with the Ertuğrul Gazi School for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Kahramanmaraş.

Sporting career

Özcan began with goal playing in 2004, and with athletics in 2009. She competes in the 800m, 1500m and shot put events. She is a member of both the national goalball team and national

para-athletics Para-athletics is the sport of athletics practiced by people with a disability as a disabled sports, parasport. The list of athletics events, athletics events within the parasport are mostly the same as those available to able-bodied people, w ...

team. She competed for her school's team in Kahramanmaraş, and took part at the European Championships in 2009 and 2010 after internationally debuting in 2007. She represented her country at the 2011 and 2013 World Championships. ;Para-athletics Özcan took part in the shotput F12 event at the

2011 IPC Athletics World Championships The 2011 IPC Athletics World Championships was held in Christchurch, New Zealand from January 21 to 30, 2011. Athletes with disabilities competed, and the Championships were a qualifying event for the London 2012 Paralympic Games. Over 1,000 ath ...

held in

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

, New Zealand. She competed in the 1500m T11 class event and the

2012 Summer Paralympics The 2012 Summer Paralympics, branded as the London 2012 Paralympic Games, were an international Multi-sport event, multi-sport parasports event held from 29 August to 9 September 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. They were the 14th Sum ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, United Kingdom. She ran with guide a personal best time of 5:10.68, and placed seventh. In 2013, she participated in the 1500m T12 class event at the

IPC Athletics World Championships The World Para Athletics Championships, known as the IPC Athletics World Championships prior to 2017, are a biennial Paralympic athletics event organized by World Para Athletics, a subcommittee of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). It ...

held in

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

, France. ;Goalball Özcan competes for Kahramanmaraş Ertuğrul Gazi Disabled SK in

. She played for the

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

at the Malmö Ladies' and Men's InterCup tournaments in Sweden in 2014 and 2015 respectively. The team placed third in 2014 and second in 2015. In 2015, she became top scorer of the tournament with 23 goals. She enjoyed the champion title with the national team at the 2015 IBSA Goalball European Championships Division A in

Kaunas Kaunas (; ) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius, the fourth largest List of cities in the Baltic states by population, city in the Baltic States and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaun ...

, Lithuania, which was a qualifier competition for the 2016 Paralympics. Özcan was also a member of the women's national Goalball team at the 2016 Paralympics in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

, Brazil. Özcan won the gold medal with her teammates at the event.

Honours

Individual

* ''Top scorer'' - Malmö Ladies' and Men's InterCup 2015 (23 goals).

International

* 2012 IBSA European Goalball Championships B in

Ascoli Piceno Ascoli Piceno (; ; ) is a (municipality) and capital of the province of Ascoli Piceno, in the Italy, Italian region of Marche. Geography The town lies at the confluence of the Tronto, River Tronto and the small Castellano (river), River Castell ...

, Italy * Malmö Ladies' and Men's InterCup 2014, Sweden. * 2014 IBSA Goalball World Championships in

Espoo Espoo (, ; ) is a city in Finland. It is located to the west of the capital, Helsinki, in southern Uusimaa. The population is approximately . It is the most populous Municipalities of Finland, municipality in Finland. Espoo is part of the Helsi ...

, Finland * 2015 IBSA Goalball European Championships Div. A in Kaunas, Lithuania. * Malmö Ladies' and Men's InterCup 2015, Sweden. *

2016 Summer Paralympics The 2016 Summer Paralympics (), the 15th Summer Paralympic Games, were a major international multi-sport event for disabled sports, athletes with disabilities governed by the International Paralympic Committee, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, f ...

, Brazil.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ozcan, Sumeyye 1992 births Living people Turkish female goalball players Turkish female middle-distance runners Turkish female shot putters Paralympic goalball players for Turkey Paralympic athletes for Turkey Paralympic gold medalists for Turkey Paralympic medalists in goalball Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Goalball players at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Female competitors in athletics with disabilities Visually impaired middle-distance runners Sportspeople from Malatya 21st-century Turkish sportswomen