Historic success for Defne Kurt in Europe

On the final day of the 2026 European Para Swimming Championships, national athletes won two more gold medals. At the event held at the Olympic Swimming Pool in the Gebze district of Kocaeli, Defne Kurt finished first in the women's 100-meter freestyle S10 final with a time of 59.37.

With this result, Defne Kurt reached her 5th gold medal of the championship, going down in history as the first Turkish athlete to win 5 gold medals in a single European Championship.

The other gold medal of the day for Turkey came from Turgut Aslan Yaraman. Competing in the men's 200-meter individual medley SM8 final, the national athlete took the top spot with a time of 2:24.13. Yaraman finished the event with 2 gold medals.

Speaking after the final race, Defne Kurt expressed her happiness with the success she achieved while noting that she also identified areas for improvement. Kurt said, "I saw my shortcomings in this race. It was actually an advantage for me in terms of what to do and what not to do. In the 100 meters, really small details become very important. That's why I will take a vacation now, and then I will continue to work full throttle for the Olympics."

Turgut Aslan Yaraman emphasized that the 200-meter medley was his target race. Stating that competing on the final day and the intense schedule challenged him, Yaraman said, "I had 5 races back-to-back. I swam in the heats and finals for all of them. I was a bit stressed, but I think I managed this stress well. It really went perfectly for me."