Meryem Bekmez

Meryem Bekmez was born in Şilbe neighborhood of Yenişehir district of Diyarbakır, southeastern Turkey on 31 July 2000. In 2013, she was discovered for athletics by Çetin Aslan, a coach of the Turkish Athletic Federation when he visited her school. She was a seventh-grade student in the middle school.[2]

Her father Hacı Bekmez told in an interview that "she would have been married off like her sister, or would be working on the field, had she not been discovered".[2] Born and raised in a region where the practice of child marriage for girls is common, she escaped the traditional social pressure thanks to athletics, as she has emphasized.[4]

Bekmez placed first in the 3 km event at an intra-school running competition at provincial level. The same year, she ranked first in a nationwide competition. Following her success in provincial and then in regional events, she was allowed to participate at the Turkish championships.[2]

After she came runner-up in the 2014 Turkish Championships, she was admitted to the national team's preparation camp. In 2015, she became Turkish champion. Her international debut came at the Balkan Athletics Championships in 2016, where she became champion.[2][5]

In 2016, Bekmez became champion in the 5,000m race walk event at the 2016 European Athletics Youth Championships in Tbilisi, Georgia,[6] and broke the 12-year national record.[7]

She competed in the 5,000m race walk at the 2017 World U18 Championships winning a silver medal.[2] She also competed in the 10,000m race walk at the 2017 European U20 Championships winning a bronze medal.[8]

Bekmez and her teammate Ayşe Tekdal of the Turkey national race walking team won the bronze medal at the 2018 IAAF World Race Walking Team Championships in Taicang, China.[9] At the 2018 IAAF World U20 Championships in Tampere, Finland, she took the silver medal,[10] and broke national records in junior and senior women's category with a time of 44:17.69.[3] She set a national record and became World U20 leader in the 20 km walk event of the 2018 European Athletics Championships in Berlin, Germany although she placed only 11th.[11]

During the first leg of the Turkish Race Walk League held in Konya in April 2019, she set a national record in the 5,000m event of women's U20 category with her time of 21:54.[12] She won the gold medal in juniors (U20) category of the 2019 European Race Walking Cup#Women's 10 km (U20) in Alytus, Lithuania.[13] At the 2019 European Athletics U20 Championships held in Borås, Sweden, she captured the gold medal in the 10,000m race walk event.[14]

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Event	Time	Notes
Representing  Turkey
2016	Balkan Athletics Championships	Pitești, Romania	1st	5,000 m race walk	22.53	[5]
	European U18 Championships	Tbilisi, Georgia	1st	5,000 m race walk	22:50.22 NR	[7]
2017	World U18 Championships	Nairobi, Kenya	2nd	5,000 m race walk	22:32.79	[2]
	European U20 Championships	Grosseto, Italy	3rd	10,000 m race walk	48:33.88	[8]
2018	World Race Walking Team Championships	Taicang, China	3rd	10 km race walk (team)	25 pts	[9]
	World U20 Championship	Tampere, Finland	2nd	10,000 m race walk	44:17.69 NR	[3][10]
	European Championships	Berlin, Germany	11th	20 km race walk	1:31:00 WU20L, NR	[11]
2019	European Race Walking Cup	Alytus, Lithuania	1st	10 km race walk (U20)	45:37	[13]
	European U20 Championships	Borås, Sweden	1st	10,000 m race walk	44:44.50	[14]

• NR: National record
• WU20L: World U20 leading

• Meryem Bekmez at World Athletics