Athe Asil from Turkey is the new all-around European champion in gymnastics. “One of my most beautiful dreams has come true, a dream that I’ve had very often,” said the 24-year-old last Thursday in Antalya, Turkey. He presented himself in impressive form and got through his six-way fight without any mistakes. In the end he was more than half a point ahead of Briton Jake Jarman. Third place went to Illja Kovtun from the Ukraine, who was the best in the pre-fight – despite a fall. On Saturday, Asil also won the decision on the rings and thus became the most successful participant in these title fights.
“For this moment I changed the country,” says Adem Asil after the all-around. He comes from Alexandria and started gymnastics in his native Egypt. In 2017, he represented Egypt in the 37th all-around place in the World Cup annals. Then he decided to move to Turkey because of the better training conditions.
Also world champion on the rings
At the Olympic Games in Tokyo, he was 15th in the all-around. In Turkey, the association decided about ten years ago to professionalize men’s gymnastics: bases were expanded and Aljaz Pegan, a former Slovenian top gymnast, was hired as a coach. The efforts have been paying off for years: Ahmet Önder won World Championship silver on parallel bars in 2019, teammate Ibrahim Colak became world champion on rings, and Ferhat Arican won bronze on parallel bars at the Tokyo Games.
Adem Asil is also the reigning world champion on rings. “The all-around is the most important competition,” says Asil in Antalya, just winning on one device is something completely different. In fact, in international men’s gymnastics there have been excellent apparatus specialists from countries without any notable gymnastics tradition for years, whereas the all-around and team titles are usually still decided among the established gymnastics nations.
After his practice on the rings, Adem Asil is very happy.
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Image: dpa
In Antalya, the Turkish team finished second behind Italy and is now justifiably hoping to finally qualify for the Olympics with a team for the first time in the fall.
He mainly owes his all-around title to “very hard work” and the support of his teammates. Adem Asil has not seen his family in Egypt for five years. He does everything for gymnastics, he says. One of his goals: “I want the whole world to know my name!” When asked: “What name?”, he has to laugh himself.
“The name would not be Turkish”
“I wanted to be a new gymnast, a new person, so I changed my name,” he explains in Antalya. Two years ago, he told the story of the change from Abdelrahman Elzamzamy to Adem Asil in a slightly different way: when he arrived in Turkey, he was asked to change his name because it “doesn’t sound like a Turkish name”. It is a rule that if you want to take Turkish citizenship, you also take a Turkish name.
So the surname Elzamzamy first became Elgamal. In fact, he started as Abdelrahman Elgamal at a European Championship in autumn 2020, which was hardly noticed due to the pandemic. But after that there were further discussions: “It was said that the name was still not Turkish, so I took this name to become a real Turkish gymnast be.” Since 2021, this gymnast has been called Adem Asil.
When asked if he also feels more Turkish now, Asil laughs: “It’s very difficult. The country that has supported me and believes in me is Turkey, so I’m more Turkish than Egyptian – as a gymnast.” Incidentally, Asil calls his new homeland “Turkey” and not “Türkiye”, as it was after the official renaming now called. But Egypt is the country of his childhood, his family and his friends: “It’s so close to my heart,” says Asil, patting his chest. His next goal is obvious, the Olympic Games in Paris, and even more an Olympic victory. Gymnast Adem Asil is very firm: “And if that happens in Paris, then that’s it.”
