Who is Turkish freestyle wrestler Yasemin Adar Yiğit on Physical: Asia? Details explored

Yasemin Adar was born on December 6, 1991, in Balıkesir province of Turkey. After completing her education at Gaziosmanpaşa High School, she pursued a degree in physical education and sports at Balıkesir University, where she began her athletic career in track and field, specifically in shot put, before transitioning to wrestling.

She took up wrestling in her native Balıkesir at the Balıkesir Municipality Youth Center under the guidance of Aslan Seyhanlı, a former European and world-champion freestyle wrestler.

Before rising to global fame, Yasemin Adar Yiğit experienced a series of early losses that would shape her career. Between 2012 and 2015, she competed in several international tournaments, including the 2012 World Championship in Canada and the 2013 European Championships in Georgia, but failed to secure a win.

She won gold at the 2013 Mediterranean Games, in Mersin, Turkey, but she missed a world medal in Budapest that year, finishing fifth after tough losses to Chinese Zhang Fengliu and American Adeline Gray.

Adar reached only the round of 16 at the 2014 World Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and further failed to advance to the finals after losing to Russian Ekaterina Bukina in the 75 kg event at the 2015 European Games in Baku, Azerbaijan.

She later fell to Moldova’s Svetlana Saenko in the bronze medal match, and at the 2015 World Championships in Las Vegas, her run ended in the quarterfinals after being pinned by Colombia’s Andrea Olaya.

Her series of wins began in 2012 when she won the gold medal in the 72-kilogram competition at the Mediterranean Games hosted by Larissa, Greece.

In 2016, she became the first woman in Turkey to win a gold medal at the European Wrestling Championships, in the 75 kg division, defeating Russian Alena Storodubtseva.

The following year, at the 2017 World Wrestling Championships in Paris, she made further history by becoming Turkey’s first female world champion in wrestling, defeating Belarus’s Vasilisa Marzaliuk with a score of 5-4 in the final.

She further won a second world championship in 2022 in Belgrade, Serbia, against Egyptian opponent Samar Amer İbrahim Hamza with a 6-0 in the final. Talking about her win, she said:

"After 2017, I became the world champ once again. I am trying to present Turkish women in best way."

At the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics (held in 2021 because of the pandemic), she won a bronze medal in the women’s 76 kg freestyle, becoming Turkey’s first-ever female wrestler to win an Olympic medal.

Apart from just winning medals, Adar has taken on the role of a teacher and mentor, teaching physical education to students in Niğde and contributing to a broader mission of inspiring younger generations, especially girls, to believe in themselves and compete and win at the highest levels of sport. She once said:

"There are newcomers. I am trying to be a role model to them [female wrestlers]. I am their idol, I know. When I started, I had no one to inspire me. I struggled by dreaming."

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