Hamza Bakır
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Hamza Bakır (born 20 January 2001, Istanbul) is a Turkish Greco-Roman wrestler. Competing in the 130 kg division, he represents Turkey internationally and competes for Ankara ASKI Sports Club. He won the gold medal at the 2023 U23 World Wrestling Championships, the silver medal at the 2025 European Wrestling Championships, and represented Turkey at the 2024 Summer Olympics.[1][2][3][4]
Bakır achieved major success at an early stage in age-group competitions. In 2018, he became both European and world cadet champion, while in 2019 he won the gold medal at the European Juniors Wrestling Championships and the bronze medal at the World Junior Wrestling Championships.[1][5]
In 2020, he won the gold medal in the 130 kg event at the International Pytlasinski Greco-Roman Wrestling Tournament held in Poland. His 4–0 victory over 2019 world champion Heiki Nabi of Estonia in the final was one of his first notable breakthroughs at senior level.[6]
At the 2021 European Juniors Wrestling Championships held in Dortmund, he became European junior champion by defeating Ukrainian wrestler Mykhailo Vyshnyvetskyi 3–1 in the final.[7][8] Later that year, he won the gold medal in the Greco-Roman 130 kg event at the 2021 World Junior Wrestling Championships held in Russia. On his way to the final, he defeated Kyrgyz wrestler Erlan Manatbekov, Armenian wrestler Razmik Kurdyan by technical fall, 8–0, and Russian wrestler Armen Chokoliyan, 4–0. In the final, he faced Sarkhan Mammadov for the gold medal and won 3–1 to become world junior champion.[9][10]
After winning the bronze medal at the 2023 European U23 Wrestling Championships, he won the gold medal in the 130 kg final at the 2023 U23 World Wrestling Championships in Tirana by once again defeating Mykhailo Vyshnyvetskyi, this time by a score of 5–3.[11][2][12]
In 2024, he won another bronze medal at the 2024 European U23 Wrestling Championships held in Baku.[13] He competed in the men's Greco-Roman 130 kg event at the 2024 Summer Olympics, where he lost in the first round to Egyptian wrestler Abdellatif Mohamed and finished the tournament in fourteenth place.[4][14][15]
In 2025, he won the silver medal at the Muhamet Malo Ranking Series in Tirana and the gold medal at the 2025 Ulaanbaatar Open in Ulaanbaatar.[16][17] Later that year, at the 2025 European Wrestling Championships in Bratislava, he advanced to the final by defeating David Ovasapyan, Beka Kandelaki and Jello Krahmer. In the final, he lost to Sergei Semenov on last-point criteria after their bout ended 1–1, and won the silver medal.[3][18]
At the beginning of 2026, he won the bronze medal at the 2026 Vehbi Emre & Hamit Kaplan Tournament held in Antalya.[19][20]