Sporno: Turkish Wrestling

Our favorite Turkish Wrestling story involves the mini-bus loads of gay tourists from the UK and the US who had to be eventually turned away from attending Turkish Wrestling tournaments around Turkey not because of homophobia, but because of local traffic laws regarding double and triple parking as the convoys of happy pervs clogged driveways and exit ramps for miles in every direction.
On a more serious note, Turkish Oil Wrestling is the Turkish national sport. It is so called because the wrestlers douse themselves with olive oil. The wrestlers, known as pehlivan (Persian: “hero” or “champion”) wear a type of hand-stitched lederhosen called a kisbet (sometimes kispet), which is traditionally made of water buffalo hide, and most recently has been made of calfskin.

Unlike Olympic wrestling, oil wrestling matches may be won by achieving an effective hold of the kisbet. Thus, the pehlivan aims to control his opponent by putting his arm through the latter’s kisbet. To win by this move is called paça kazık. Originally, matches had no set duration and could go on for one or two days until one man was able to establish his superiority, but in 1975 the duration was capped at 40 minutes.