DID YOU KNOW? The world's oldest continuously running sporting competition is not the Olympics. It is Türkiye's Kırkpınar oil wrestling festival in Edirne,...
DID YOU KNOW? The world's oldest continuously running sporting competition is not the Olympics. It is Türkiye's Kırkpınar oil wrestling festival in Edirne, held almost every year since 1362. Wrestlers called pehlivans, slicked head to toe in olive oil and wearing heavy leather trousers called kıspet, grapple for three days until one champion remains. Win three years in a row and you keep the golden belt for life. It began as training for Ottoman soldiers and is still a living tradition today, inscribed on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2010.