By BENJAMIN HARVEY
EDIRNE, Turkey (AP) – To an Ottoman band’s relentless drum pounding and whirring of clarinets, Saban Yilmaz entered the wrestling stadium and poured two full pitchers of extra virgin olive oil over his hulking torso.
After nearly an hour of slow, deliberate grappling and a few blunt slaps that sent oil and sweat spraying onto the uncut grass, Yilmaz tossed his opponent onto his back in an explosion of strength to win the 644th annual Kirkpinar oil wrestling championship – one of the world’s oldest sporting events.
“I’ve been preparing for this for 16 years, “the new Turkish baspehlivan, or head wrestler, said Sunday, panting for breath after a victory sprint that sent reporters scurrying out of the way and a celebratory lap on the shoulders of other oil wrestlers.
Now Yilmaz said he thinks it’s time to bring what he calls “the world’s most aesthetic sport “to other countries.
“No one can defeat Turkey, “he said, his massive body dripping with of oil and sweat. “This is our ancestral sport. . . . God willing, oil wrestling will be brought to other countries.”
This year’s Kirkpinar championship attracted nearly 1,800 wrestlers from all corners of Turkey, making it the largest ever. They doused themselves in olive oil – more than two tons were used this year – and grappled half naked in a grassy field near the Greek border.
The sport itself is simple. A wrestler wins either by throwing his opponent onto his back or by lifting him into the air and taking three steps. The oil makes it very difficult to get a grip, inspiring one of the sport’s most common moves – where one wrestler thrusts his hands deep into the other’s pants for leverage.
The event has become a huge outlet for Turkish national pride, with announcers constantly invoking God and Islam’s prophet Muhammad to expound on the greatness of the wrestlers – called pehlivans – and the strength of the Turkish people, who trace the origins of the tournament back to the time when their ancestors’ armies were building an empire.
The tournament’s origins go back to the Ottoman sieges that preceded the capture of Constantinople, now Istanbul, and the establishment of a Muslim empire that spanned from the tip of Saudi Arabia, across northern Africa and eventually into the heart of Europe.
Legend has it that in the mid-1300s, a group of 40 Ottoman Turkish soldiers began wrestling in a field near Edirne, formerly Adrianopolis, to pass the time between invasions into nearby towns and villages. Two of the soldiers, brothers, refused to stop when the sun fell, and continued wrestling until both died of exhaustion.
Nearly everything at the three-day tournament – including the Ottoman military band, the announcer’s invocations of God, the wrestlers’ leather pants that weigh up to 13 kilograms, the thigh-slapping dances they perform before wrestling – is steeped in centuries of Turkish tradition.
There are disputes about the true origins of the sport. Similar wrestling events are held across the borders in Greece and Bulgaria, and there are references to wrestling with oil at the ancient Greek games. Even before that, others claim, the Babylonians were doing it – as evidenced by 4600-year-old Babylonian figures depicted wrestling with olive vessels on their heads.
Despite Turkish oil wrestling’s possible roots in antiquity, officials at the Edirne municipality say Kirkpinar is unique.
“It’s totally a Turkish thing, “Selim Bilginkaya said. “You can’t see it anywhere else. In Greece and Bulgaria they have things that look like it, but there’s no oil. It’s not Kirkpinar.”
Bilginkaya said the champion wrestler’s statement about exporting the event was his own idea and that organizers had no plans to do so for now.
Yilmaz wasn’t the only proud winner at this year’s Kirkpinar.
Adem Tuysuz, who presided over the tournament, paid 180 billion Turkish lira, or about $143,000 US, in open bidding to do so again next year.
He said he’d do anything to take part.
“I’d even give my soul, “Tuysuz was quoted as saying after being carried around the field with an Ottoman band and a soon-to-be sacrificed goat in tow.
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