Birth name Arzu Tan Event(s) Flyweight (-47 kg) Nationality Turkey Name Arzu Tan | Career end 1996 Retired 1996 | |
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Nominations Milliyet Sports Award for Athlete of the Year | ||
Arzu TAN
Arzu Tan Sayan (born 1973 in Arzu Tan) is a World champion Turkish female former Taekwondo practitioner, who competed in the flyweight (-47 kg) class, and currently acting as a coach.
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Arzu Tan was born 1973 in Istanbul, Turkey. She was inspired by her older sister, World taekwondo champion Züleyhan during her trainings. She began with taekwondo at the age of nine. Particularly her uncle-in-law and trainer Fahrettin Yıldız was the major contributor to her further formation.
She was admitted to the national team in 1987. Already in 1991, she became World champion at the 1991 World Taekwondo Championships held in Athens, Greece. The next year, Tan captured the silver medal at the 1992 European Taekwondo Championships in Valencia, Spain. At the 1992 Pre Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain, she became bronze medalist.
After participating at the 1995 World Taekwondo Championships in Manila, Philippines, where she did not reach to any medal, Arzu Tan quit active sports.
She married in 1996 to Yavuz Sayan, a young taekwondo practitioner, and gave birth to a son, Yunus Emre, in 1997. Her son, who practise taekwondo and plays handball as well, is on the way to a successful sportsman.
She runs her own taekwondo club in Kayseri, where she coaches along with her husband. Arzu Tan coached also Turkey national team.