Demet Parlak

Happy birthday to Turkiye’s Demet Parlak, a pole vaulter who has claimed five Turkish national outdoor titles, three Turkish indoor crowns, and a Balkan Indoor Championships gold — and who shows up to every runway under the Galatasaray banner.

Demet’s path to the pole vault has as many interesting turns as the event itself. She discovered athletics after watching the 2008 Beijing Olympics on television, spent years training through family resistance until her results made the case for her, and has since built a career that includes a personal best of 4.33m and the kind of national title collection that makes you the reference point for women’s pole vault in your entire country. Five national championships across indoor and outdoor circuits is not an accident — it is the product of years of consistent commitment to one of athletics’ most technically complex events.

Representing Galatasaray — one of Turkey’s most iconic sporting institutions — in athletics says something about the level she has reached and the consistency with which she has maintained it.

Mutlu yıllar, Demet! 🎂🎁🎉🫶🫶🇹🇷