Turkey at the 1998 Winter Olympics

The Turkish Olympic Committee was recognized by the International Olympic Committee on 1 January 1911.^[1] They have participated in almost every Summer Olympic Games since, except for 1920, 1932, and the boycotted 1980 Summer Olympics.^[2][3] Since their first Winter Olympics participation at the 1936 Winter Olympics, Turkey has only missed three editions of the Winter Games, the 1952, 1972, and the 1980 Winter Olympics.^[2] Nagano was Turkey's 12th appearance at a Winter Olympics.^[2] The 1998 Winter Olympics were held from 7–22 February 1998; a total of 2,176 athletes took part, representing 72 National Olympic Committees.^[4] The Turkish delegation to Nagano consisted of a single alpine skier, Arif Alaftargil.^[5] He was chosen as the flag bearer for the opening ceremony.^[2]

The following is the list of number of competitors in the Games.^[6]

Arif Alaftargil was 24 years old at the time of the Nagano Olympics, and was making his Olympic debut.^[7] In the two-run men's slalom, held on 21 February, he finished the first run in a time of 1 minute and 12.36 seconds.^[8] He completed the second run in a similar time of 1 minute and 12.73 seconds,^[9] making his combined time 2 minutes and 25.09 seconds.^[10] This placed him 29th, out of 31 skiers who finished both legs of the race; however over 30 skiers failed to finish both runs.^[10] The gold medal was won in 1 minute and 49.31 seconds by Hans Petter Buraas of Norway, the silver by fellow Norwegian Ole Kristian Furuseth, and the bronze was taken by Thomas Sykora of Austria.^[10]