Türkiye's centuries-old tradition of oil wrestling returns Friday as the 665th Historic Kırkpınar Oil Wrestling Festival gets underway in Edirne, where 840 wrestlers, including 40 elite head wrestlers, will compete for the sport's most prestigious title and a chance to make history.
The three-day festival at Sarayiçi Er Meydanı opens with youth divisions taking to the grass before attention gradually shifts to the highly anticipated chief wrestling competition, which begins Saturday and concludes with Sunday's championship bout.
Wrestlers will compete across 14 weight and age divisions, ranging from youth categories to the coveted head wrestler championship, preserving one of Türkiye's oldest sporting traditions while showcasing the next generation of competitors.
Beyond the wrestling, Friday's schedule features the ceremonial traditions that have defined Kırkpınar for centuries.
Ufuk Özünlü, who secured this year's ceremonial agha title after submitting the winning bid of TL 40,664,665 ($871,000), will receive an official welcome from Edirne Mayor Filiz Gencan in Selimiye Square before participants lay a wreath at the Atatürk Monument.
The ceremonies will continue at the Wrestlers Cemetery, where prayers will be offered at the graves of legendary champions Adalı Halil and Kara Emin.
A memorial prayer service will also be held at Edirne's Old Mosque before the official opening ceremony begins at 6:00 p.m. local time inside Sarayiçi Er Meydanı.
Defending champion Orhan Okulu, winner of the 664th edition, will raise the Turkish flag before the opening parade and official speeches formally launch the festival.
The road to this year's championship starts with preliminary qualification matches Friday, where wrestlers ranked between 25th and 32nd in the national league will face eight additional qualifiers for the final places in the 32-man main draw.
The first round of the chief wrestling tournament begins Saturday at 1:30 p.m. local time.
Sunday's final day will feature the quarterfinals, semifinals and championship match, along with competitions in the remaining divisions, the traditional agha auction and the closing ceremony.
One of this year's biggest storylines centers on Kırkpınar's iconic golden belt.
Traditionally, the belt becomes the permanent property of any wrestler who wins the chief wrestling title three consecutive times. No competitor in this year's field meets that requirement.
However, revised competition regulations introduced this year also allow any wrestler who captures five career Kırkpınar titles, regardless of whether they are consecutive, to permanently claim the belt.
That gives four-time champions Recep Kara and Ali Gürbüz an opportunity to become the first permanent owner of the golden belt since Ahmet Taşçı achieved the feat in 1997.
The Edirne Municipality has significantly rewarded this year's competitors.
The chief wrestling champion will earn a prize of TL 1.655 million, while the runner-up will receive TL 750,000. The two losing semifinalists will each collect 380,000 lira.
Prize money will also be awarded across every wrestling division, with the Başaltı champion receiving TL 225,000 and winners in the Büyük Orta, Küçük Orta Büyük and Küçük Orta Küçük divisions earning TL 125,000, TL 82,500 and TL 55,000, respectively.
An additional 16,000-lira prize will recognize the wrestler delivering the festival's best ceremonial peşrev, the traditional pre-match ritual that honors Kırkpınar's heritage.
Fans can attend Friday's opening competitions free of charge.
Tickets for Saturday's program are priced at TL 1,400 and TL 1,750, depending on seating location, while Sunday's championship card costs TL 1,750 or TL 2,600.
Kırkpınar traces its origins to the early Ottoman era, when 40 frontier warriors reportedly wrestled during military campaigns in Rumelia to maintain their strength and morale.
Legend says two brothers, Ali and Selim, wrestled for hours without either gaining the upper hand. Both died from exhaustion during the contest and were buried beneath a willow tree. When fellow soldiers later returned, they discovered a spring flowing from the burial site, giving rise to the name "Kırkpınar," meaning "Forty Springs."
After the conquest of Edirne, Sultan Murad I established a wrestlers' lodge, helping transform the city into the permanent home of the annual festival.
Although interrupted during the Russo-Turkish War, the Balkan Wars and World War I, Kırkpınar has endured as one of the world's oldest continuously celebrated sporting traditions. Since 1946, the festival has been organized by the Edirne Municipality.
The tournament has produced generations of champions, including Ali Gürbüz, İsmail Balaban, Recep Kara, Orhan Okulu and Yusuf Can Zeybek, with Okulu entering this year's competition as the reigning titleholder after reclaiming the championship in 2025.
