CREATION OF THE EUROPEAN WRESTLING GEOGRAPHY MAP AND EXAMINING THE SUCCESS OF THE COUNTRIES PARTICIPATING IN THE EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS

Abstract

Wrestling is a combat sport that attracts attention all over the world. It has been seen that many countries participating in the European Championships, such as England, Germany, France, Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey and Russia, have traditionally been interested in wrestling. This research was conducted to examine the number of medals received by the countries participating in the European Wrestling Championships and thus to create a map of the European wrestling geography. Our research was carried out using the document analysis method, one of the qualitative research methods. In order to carry out our research, championship results were taken from the World Wrestling Union (UWW) database and the obtained data was organized with the help of Microsoft Office 2016 Excel program. Additionally, the "Countries Been: Visited Places" Android Application was used to display the medal-winning countries on the map. The image prepared with the help of this program was edited with the Microsoft Paint computer program. According to the results of our research, the countries that won the most medals in the Freestyle European Championships are; Russia 383 medals, Bulgaria 212 medals, Türkiye 210 medals. The list of countries that won the most medals in the Greco-Roman Style European Championships is; Russia 336 medals, Bulgaria 162 medals, Hungary 143 medals. When the created European wrestling geography map is examined, it is seen that Ireland, Portugal, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Karabakh and Kosovo did not win any medals from the European Championships, and all European countries except these countries received medals by participating in the European Championships. It is noteworthy that the three countries that received the most medals in total (Russia, Bulgaria and Turkey) are in Eastern Europe.