Gizem Girişmen

Gizem Girişmen (born November 25, 1981[1]) is a Turkish Paralympian female archer[2] competing in the women's recurve ARW2 event.[3]

Gizem Girişmen

Girişmen with target
Personal information
Nationality	Turkish
Born	November 25, 1981 Ankara, Turkey
Sport
Country	Turkey
Sport	Paralympic archery
Event(s)	Women's recurve ARW2
Club	Ankara Okçuluk İhtisas Spor Kulübü
Coached by	Gülüşen Güler Balcı
Achievements and titles
Paralympic finals	2008
Medal record Women's archery Representing  Turkey Paralympic Games 2008 Beijing Women's individual recurve W1/W2
Updated on September 8, 2012.

Gizem Girişmen (in front) competing against Iran's Zahra Nemati at the London 2012 Paralympics.

Early years

In 1992, at the age of eleven, she was paralyzed following a traffic accident.[4] She completed her education with honors in Business Administration from Bilkent University in 2004. In the same year, she was invited to an archery competition where she got interested and decided to practice that sport. She practised in the basement garage of her apartment building, with the permission of the neighbors.

After two years of practice and competition experience in national tournaments, Gizem Girişmen had 3rd place (ARW2 Recurve Female) at 2006 EPC Archery European Championships held in the Czech Republic, which was her first international tournament.

Sporting career

She won the first place (FITA Round) at the 2007 IPC Archery World Championships in Cheongju, South Korea. In the same year, she won first place in the 2007 Czech Republic International Archery Tournament. In 2008, she became second in the European Disabled Archery Grand Prix held between July 12–18 in the United Kingdom.

She represented Turkey at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in the category of individual recurve W1/W2 and won the gold medal by defeating her Chinese rival Fu Hongzhi.[5]

Finally in August 2009, Girişmen confirmed her World Champion status by winning the gold at the Para-Archery World Championships held in Nymburk, Czech Republic.

She has been ranked Number One Archer in the World for Women's Ind. Recurve-W1/W2 since 2007.

Girişmen was nominated as the Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year, the first Turkish athlete nominated to this award.[2][6]

Gizem Girişmen is also the Turkish record holder of 30-50-60-70 meters, FITA, 70 mt round and Olymp R Match for ARW2 female category.

She competed at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in the women's individual recurve W1/W2 event, where she lost to her Iranian opponent in the quarterfinals. She was also part of the Turkish team at the women's team recurve event, which came 5th losing to the team from Italy in the quarterfinals.

See also

• Turkish women in sports

Honors

• Torch bearer of 2008 Summer Paralympics
• Athlete of the Month (August 2009) by IPC
• Flag bearer of Turkey at the 2012 Summer Paralympics

References

1. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-07-27. Retrieved 2008-09-20.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
2. http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/spor/digersporlar/9888672.asp?m=1 (in Turkish)
3. "Sporcular / Okçuluk-Gizem Girişken" (in Turkish). GSB. Archived from the original on 2012-12-21. Retrieved 2012-09-08.
4. Özdil, Yılmaz (2012-08-29). "Eli ayağı tutan acizler ülkesinin... İnsanüstü yetenekli milli takımı". Hürriyet (in Turkish). Retrieved 2012-09-08.
5. http://www.newstime7.com/haber/20080914/Turkey-press-scan-September-14th.php
6. http://www.engellilersitesi.com/haber/700-spor-yolunuz-acik-olsun.html Archived 2010-02-17 at the Wayback Machine (in Turkish)

External links

• Gizem Girişmen at the World Archery Federation