Olympic Champion Taha Akgul feels that quarantine due to Coronavirus has hampered injured athletes.
The Turkish wrestler had suffered shoulder surgery in 2019 December after sustaining a severe shoulder injury during a national training camp. After staying away from the mat for 12 weeks, he had begun his rehabilitation and training. But all plans were backburned due to the pandemic.
Akgul told Anadolu Agency that he is at home because of coronavirus and is unable to complete his rehabilitation. “In this process, I was going out for treatment. And it was left half-finished. But I am doing [shoulder] exercises at home,” he said but acknowledged it is not enough as the sport requires physical contact.
“We always have to do wrestling and technique drills. In this period we lack them. So this affects us negatively,” the 2019 Worlds silver medallist said. “This [lockdown] process will have negative impacts on the athletes’ performance. Because Olympians should train at least for four or five hours a day.”
Akgul does weight training in a private room in his house and has encouraged athletes to be disciplined and maintain good shape because there will competitions once thing normalize.
In his spare time, he reads books, watches movies and studies English. He is considered a living legend alongside Russia’s Abdulrashid Sadulaev. He has won five world championship medals, six European Championship gold medals and the 2016 Rio Olympic gold. He is currently ranked number two in the world in the UWW 125kg rankings.
