Mahmut Bozteke
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| Born | 5 March 1997 Şanlıurfa, Turkey | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Sport | Para Taekwondo | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Disability class | K44 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight class | 61 kg | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Mahmut Bozteke (born 21 June 1997) is a Turkish Para Taekwondo athlete.[1] He is a two-time Paralympian, Paralympics and several times European champion.
At age eleven, his arms were caught in the tail shaft of a tractor while he was working in a pistachio tree garden. Bozteke's arms were severed in the accident,[2] and he was hospitalised for three and half months. He had a partial amputation of his arms and tissue taken from his legs allowed partial reconstruction of his arms over the course of fifteen operations.[3] He was bedridden at home for a year recovering from injury and the operations. Having no hands, he learned to do his daily work with his feet. He was introduced to Taekwondo at a gymnasium of the Youth and Sports Provincial Directorate in his neighbourhood on the recommendation of his physiotherapist, who told him, "You use your feet well, I think you can practise taekwondo."[3][4] During his secondary education at Kanuni Sultan Süleyman High School, he participated in regional competitions for para-swimming in the S6 disability class.[5]