Furkan Akar
Furkan Akar (born 6 March 2002) is a Turkish Olympian short track speed skater. He is the first representative of Turkey at the Olympic Games in short track speed skating. He is also the first and only Turkish athlete placed in "Top 10" at the Winter Olympics by finishing 6th in the 1000-meter event at the 2022 Winter Olympics held in Beijing, China. Akar finished third (1:34.780) and gained a bronz medal in the 2023 European Championship 1000 metres race, a first for Turkey. Early years Furkan Akar was born in Erzurum, Turkey on 6 March 2002. He started motivated performing winter sportby his brother while he was watching him in training. Aged nine, he began skiing. He is a student of Sport coaching in the Sport Science Faculty at Atatürk University in Erzurum. Sports career Akar competes in short track speed skating with the license of Erzurum G.S.İ.M. He has been in the national team since 2015. He took the bronze medal in the Boys' 500m and the silver medal in the 1500m event at the 2019 European Youth Olympic Winter Festival held in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He participated in the Men's 1000m event at the 2021–22 ISU