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the continuing story of endless wrestling...
The world’s longest continuously held sporting event, the Kirkpinar Oil Wrestling Championship began in 1357 during the Ottomans’ expansion into Europe and before conquering Istanbul. Orhan Gazi, second Sultan of the burgeoning Ottoman Empire, set out to conquer Thrace west of Istanbul. His son, Süleyman Pasha, scored a major victory by taking Edirne, the Thracian capital, temporarily. On a break from empire-building in Samona (now modern-day Greece), forty of his soldiers passed the time between battles by wrestling. Eventually, two brothers, Ali and Selim, were the last men standing, but could not defeat each other. They continued their battle in Ahıköy. Alas, there was never a victor. Exhausted and short of breath, they collapsed dead. Forty springs sprang up and the spot was named Kirkpinar, literally Forty Springs in Turksih. In 1361, Edirne was retaken for the Ottomans by Murat Bey. He ordered the organization of a wrestling competition in memory of the forty brave fighters.
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