Ebrar Karakurt
Birth date17 January 2000 (age 26)
Birth placeBalıkesir, Turkey
Height1.93 m
Weight72 kg
Spike315 cm
Block304 cm
PositionOpposite / Outside Hitter
CurrentclubEczacıbaşı Dynavit
Years2014–2015
2016–2020
2020–2021
2021–2023
2023–2025
2025-
ClubsBursa BŞB
VakıfBank
Türk Hava Yolları
Igor Gorgonzola Novara
Lokomotiv Kaliningrad
Eczacıbaşı Dynavit
Nationalyears 12017
Nationalteam 1Turkey U18
Nationalyears 22017–
Nationalteam 2Turkey U23
Nationalyears 32018–
Nationalteam 3Turkey
Updated5 July 2018

Ebrar Karakurt (ɛbɾ̞ɑɾ̞ kɑˈɾ̞ɑkuɾ̞t; born 17 January 2000) is a Turkish volleyball player. She is 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)[1] tall and plays as opposite. She plays for Eczacıbaşı Dynavit and Turkey women's national volleyball team.[2][3]

Volleyball career

Club

Karakurt started her volleyball career at DSİ Spor in Balıkesir. After settling in Bursa, she continued to play in her school team at Bursa Bahçeşehir Anadolu High School, and at the same time in the Bursa Büyükşehir Belediyespor.[4] She played for Bursa BB in the 2014–15 Turkish Women's Volleyball League.[5] She has two club licenses, which allow her to play for Bursa BB and Vakıfbank.[6] She was a member of the youth team at Vakıfbank before she was taken to the senior team.[6][7][8]

She was part of the Vakıfbank team, which became champion of the 2017–18 CEV Women's Champions League. She played with the Vakifbank team until moving to the Turkish team Türk Hava Yolları in 2020.[9]

National team

She was part of the Turkey U18 team, and played at the 2017 Girls' U18 Volleyball European Championship in the Netherlands,[10] as well as at the 2017 FIVB Volleyball Girls' U18 World Championship in Argentina.[11] She was named one of the two Best outside spikers of the world tournament.[12]

She participated at the 2017 FIVB Volleyball Women's U23 World Championship in Slovenia with the Turkey U23 team, which became the champion of the tournament.[7][13]

After being admitted to the Turkey national team, she experienced many important achievements, the most current of which is the silver medal at the 2019 Women's European Championship[14] organized in Ankara, Turkey. Before that, she played in the 2018 FIVB Volleyball Women's Nations League with her team and reached to the silver medal.[15][citation needed]

Karakurt competed for Turkey at the 2020 Summer Olympics and the 2024 Summer Olympics.[16]

Personal life

In August 2021 Karakurt shared a photo of herself and her girlfriend on her Instagram account. The Instagram post was published by the conservative newspaper Takvim, which called her sexual orientation and relationship "scandalous", which in turn led to her being subjected to homophobic slurs on social media.[17][18] Turkish televangelist Ahmet Mahmut Ünlü criticized her by saying that he "wonder[ed] what kind of troubles she could gather on [Turks]".[19] After the attacks Karakurt has received messages of support on social media.[18] The Turkish National Volleyball Federation spokesperson Kurtaran Mumcu supported Karakurt and criticized the homophobic comments directed at her. Demet Akalın, Eda Erdem Dündar and Naz Aydemir were among the people that have shown support to Karakurt.[20][21]

In an interview with Turkish daily-published and online sports newspaper Fanatik, Karakurt admitted to be a diehard Beşiktaş fan and often posts pictures on her social media account wearing Beşiktaş jersey[22]

Honours

Club

National team

Individual

References

  1. ^ "Dünya Şampiyonu Ebrar Karakurt 1.Lig'de forma giyecek"
  2. ^ "Turkey – Ebrar Karakurt". FIVB Girls' U18 World Championship. Archived 15 February 2019 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
  3. ^ "Turkey – Ebrar Karakurt". Volleyball Nations League. Archived from the original on 21 January 2019. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
  4. ^ "Bahçeşehir'den iki yıldız voleybolcu" (in Turkish). Voleybolun Sesi. 11 March 2014. Retrieved 5 July 2018.[dead link]
  5. ^ "2014–2015 Bayanlar Ligi – 19 Ebrar Karakurt" (in Turkish). Türkiye Voleybol Federasyonu. Archived 5 July 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
  6. ^ "Dünya Şampiyonu Ebrar Karakurt 1.Lig'de forma giyecek" (in Turkish). Voleybolun Sesi. 26 September 2017. Archived from the original on 2 June 2018. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
  7. ^ "Ebrar Karakurt – The Turkish Promise". Volleyball Movies. 22 February 2018. Archived 5 July 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
  8. ^ "VakıfBank A Takımı'na altyapıdan 3 yeni oyuncu" (in Turkish). Voleybol Plus. 22 June 2018. Archived 5 July 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
  9. ^ "Ebrar Karakurt moves on loan to T.Airlines". Archived from the original on 24 January 2022. Retrieved 15 May 2020.
  10. ^ "Turkey, Bulgaria and Italy take the lead in Pool I". CEV. 1 April 2017. Archived 5 July 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
  11. ^ "Karakurt: "Maçı Aldığımız Yanlışına Düştük, Unutmamamız Gereken Bir Ders"" (in Turkish). Milliyet. 26 August 2017. Archived 5 July 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
  12. ^ "U18 Milliler Dünya 4., Ebrar Rüya takımda" (in Turkish). Voleybol Aktuel. 28 August 2017. Archived 5 July 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
  13. ^ "U23 Kadın Voleybol Milli Takımı 2017 Dünya 23 Yaş Altı Kadınlar Voleybol Şampiyonası'nı kazandı" (in Turkish). Habertürk. 25 September 2017. Archived 5 July 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
  14. ^ "CEV EuroVolley 2019 - Women | EuroVolley". eurovolley.cev.eu. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  15. ^ "Olympics-Volleyball- Turkey's flamboyant spiker wants to snatch medal". Yahoo Sports. 30 July 2021. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  16. ^ "KARAKURT Ebrar". Paris 2024 Olympics. Archived from the original on 30 July 2024.
  17. ^ "Ebrar Karakurt'un en büyük sırrı ifşa oldu! Herkes olimpiyatın yıldızı kimdir diye merak ederken skandal patlak verdi çıkanlar fena". takvim.com.tr. 17 August 2021. Archived 23 November 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 23 November 2021.
  18. ^ "Ebrar Karakurt: Supporters rally around Turkish volleyballer after abuse". BBC News. 16 August 2021. Archived 16 August 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 16 August 2021.
  19. ^ "Cüppeli Ahmet, milli voleybolcu Ebrar Karakurt'u hedef aldı: Başımıza ne işler açacak". cumhuriyet.com.tr. 12 August 2021. Archived 16 August 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 23 November 2021.
  20. ^ "Turks rally around Olympic volleyball star attacked over sexuality – Al-Monitor: The Pulse of the Middle East". al-monitor.com. Archived 16 August 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 16 August 2021.
  21. ^ "Türkiye Voleybol Federasyonu'ndan homofobik saldırılara maruz kalan Ebrar Karakurt'a destek" (in Turkish). BBC News Türkçe. Archived 16 August 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 16 August 2021.
  22. ^ "Ebrar Karakurt'tan Beşiktaş sözleri". Fanatik. 10 May 2023. Retrieved 10 May 2023.