credits: a special thank for the help to graphic designers beatrice bressi and Enrico Usberti 
© 2019 All rights reserved
Made with ❤ with Elementor
İlkim Dilan Uygun
24
Turkey/ Ankara
1)Can you talk to us in detail about your sporting career? When did you start? What were the greatest satisfactions?
I started sport with gymnastics at the age of 3. It wasn’t my choice, my parents took me with them to their friends nightclub, while I was dancing in the nightclub, I caught the attention of a gymnastics coach there, and I started gymnastics as the coach talked to my family. But I was not happy because the gymnastics training hurts me so much. I was giving them a lot of trouble when my parents took me to practice, i was crying all the time. I continued gymnastics until I was 6 years old. One day we went to ice skating with my family and it excited me a lot. I told to my parents that I wanted to do ice skating. My mother said that if I started, I should not give up like I do to gymnastics and I should continue to do ice skating . So I started ice skating when I was 6, I worked with Russian coachs. we were working so hard, I also took dance lessons and ballet lessons to be succesful in ice skating. I don’t remember very well but I was practicing 2-3 hours a day.
Hard work paid off, when I was 12, I became a champion of turkey in my category. For a while it continued like this, ı ve got another medals.And in the meantime, my older friends who I know from ice skating established an ice hockey team. Sometimes I participated in hockey practice with them just for having fun. Later I realized that I enjoyed ice hockey more. I did ice hockey and figure skating together about 3 years. and I stoped doing figure skating when I was 15. I was selected for the Women’s National Hockey Team when I was 16. Even though I was the youngest player of my team in the tournament in Bulgaria, I was selected as MVP and I also was selected as the MVP in the Turkish league that season. From that year to this year; I won 5 most valuable defender awards, the MVP award of 2 tournaments at the national teams level , the best player of the game award 7 times and the ‘Best of Gillette Sport’ ice hockey special award.The teams which I played have won gold medals 8 times and silver medals 3 times. This season, I will continue playing in my club where I won the champion cup at last season as a team captain.
2) Are you studying medicine? What would you like to become?
Yes, I m studing medicine and I would like to be a surgeon, maybe I’ll be a orthopedist but I haven’t decided yet.
3) How important is the team harmony in the hockey? Do you have a good relationship with your companions even off the field?
We Turks are very emotional, no matter how professional we are, we are not very good at controlling our emotions. Therefore while doing team sports, it is important to have a good emotional bond between our team mates, at least there should be no bad communication. I ve good relationship with my teammates, ı m the one of the oldest and the team captan. So for now I m like their mentor and big sister to them on the ice and out of the ice.
4) How do you imagine yourself in 20 years?
In 20 years, I’d like to see myself as a good surgeon and still a sports lover. And I woluld also like to support children financially and morally in sports and education.
5) The best and the worse moment of your life?
I ve had a lot of succes and failures,I have won many times in sports, won individual prizes, won medical school, had good moments with my friends and family. But also I caused my team to lose the championship, failed in medical school, I could not win the university exam in the first year so I was prepared for another year to win medical school. I had problems with my family and friends..So I cant classify my best and worst moments. I can only say that I have learned to live the moment (carpe diem)
6) What are your best strengths and your worst flaws?
I am mentally strong and harmonius person, I can easily solve problems and involve people around me easily.I think these are my strengths. If we talk about flaws, I cry a lot. when I m angry or when I feel injustice or when I see some emotional thing I can’t hold my tears and I start crying. I’m very emotinal person.
7) The 3 favorite songs?
Actually I like to listen different kinds of music, like classical, R&B, folk songs, house… But 3 songs that I listen mostly are;
Dua Lipa- Be the one
Joe Goddard – Gabriel
Don Diablo ft Emeli Sande – Survive (I listen this song before the games)
8) Are you a strong woman? How do you deal with moments of fragility?
I think I’m a strong woman. But in the moments of fragility, I cry as I said before 😀 I’m trying to stay calm and not to do something that I’ll regret later.I don’t know if I’m good at it.
But if it’s about my mood, when I wake up in the morning and feel bad for no reason, I try to meditate or go for a run or sometimes I do nothing and accept my mood. I can be very emotional and fragile in this situations. But I think being in a bad mood for no reason is one of the necessities of being human.
9) How many hours do you train per week?
This changes. When the season starts, there are usually 3 ice training sessions and 3 fitness training sessions per week. In the camps before the national team tournement, there are 4 hours of ice training and 1-2 hours of fitness training per day and this lasts for 15 or 20 days. When the season is closed I do not do anything about the sport for about 1 month then I prepare myself for the new season by creating a plan on my own and focusing on my shortcomings.I’m trying to spend at least 2 hours daily during the summer to prepare for the new season.
10) Listening to the word “Home” what image comes to mind?
It’s a good question. I travel a lot and I usually have to be out of town because of hockey matches. There are also camps…Camps are organized before major league matches and national team matches and I am usually away from home because of these camps. But for me the word ‘home’ is called where I’m happy. This is sometimes a bad hotel room, sometimes a small house where I try to fit in with my teammates or sometimes the house where my family is waiting for me.
11) What do you think about the place where you live? Tell us a little about it. Which places are a “must see” ?
I live in Ankara, capital of Turkey. About 5 million people live here, mostly students and civil servant. I would describe it as a regular city and I do really like Ankara. If you come to Ankara you should definitely go to Anıtkabir. The mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (founder of Republic of Turkey) is located at the Anıtkabir. There is an authentic district called Beypazarı, visitors should go there also and they should eat some ‘yaprak sarma’. Ankara Castle and surrounding buildings are another places to visit.
12) What is the dream of your life?
I dream of being good in my profession and being able to touch people’s lives and during my dreams are becoming real I hope to see new places, taste new flavors, get to know new people.
13) Have you ever been wronged? How do you react? Are you vengeful?
Of course I have been wronged. I used to feel very sad and angry when I had been wronged. But then I saw it didn’t change anything. I realized that the only thing I could do for injustice was to improve myself and eliminate even the slightest reason that would cause me to be wronged.Timely I suffered too much injustice, and this made me one of the best hockey player of turkey. I’m not vindictive, okay maybe just for occasionally. But I trust Karma 🙂
14) Have you ever thought about changing your life and going to live in other place? where would you like to live?
Scandinavia was my dream place, I always wanted to live in Scandinavia when I was little. But now I think I want to live in Italy. For next year I am thinking to have one of my surgical internship in Italy so I will see if I really want to live in italy.
15) Which religion are you? Do you believe in God?
My family doesn’t care about religion. They care about to be a good person, to be a helpful, not to be intentionally malicious or not to lie to someone and that’s how they raised me. I believe that there is a ‘thing’ that creates us but I do not believe in any prophet. Just because our ancestors have settled in a place, we must have the religion which is in there, and accordingly we can eat pork or we can’t eat or we should pray in different ways. I can’t believe this. But I do pray.I don’t pray like a Muslim or a Christian, or as if I belonged to any religion. I pray from my heart to the power that created us.
16) What is your first thought when you wake up in the morning and the last thought before falling asleep?
Nowadays when I wake up, ı m thinking like ‘where is my little kitten?’:D I usually try to sleep at night without thinking much of anything.But I am a overthinker and sometimes it s hard to not think and just sleep.Suddenly thoughts appear in my head at night; what am i going to do tomorrow, what should i eat for breakfast, where can i find the size M of the sweater on sale, which color nail polish brings luck to beat the match and it goes like this.
17) Who is your greatest idol?
Actually I don’t have any idol. Sometimes I meet new people, and their character and success impress me. I always try to learn from them. I blend everything I’ve learned from them and I’m on my way to becoming a person I’ve dreamed about.
18) How do you see the future of the world? What can every single person do to make the world a better place?
I think there is a need for greater steps in renewable energy and recycling. Everyone should be involved in recycling. Turkey has just began to develop about recycling. And of course forests… We have to stop killing forests to make new buildings and we should try to make the environment more green. We need to minimize environmental pollution. We need to use public transport, electric vehicles or bicycles for transportation. I hope there is still little hope to save our world.
19)Are you optimistic or pessimistic?
I am optimistic,I always hope that things will go well and I send energy to the universe like that.
20) What is the thing that makes you more angry?
The referees who make the wrong decisions in important matches make me very angry. And also It makes me angry that my close friends lie to me and do disloyalty.
21) When you see carefully yourself at the mirror, what do you see?
I see a little girl, I see a strong woman, I see a person capable of doing anything when she wants to do. And sometimes I see a very weak person. I am looking into my eyes in the mirror and asking to myself ‘what are you doing why do you do this to yourself? Be yourself!’
22) The best place you ever seen?
I have gone to Hong Kong and Iceland for national team.I didn’t have much time to walk around but I really really liked their unique culture, cuisine and architectural works. So I want to go these places again.
23) Your favorite film? Why?
I m not a movie person, I like serials. But Tim Burton’s movies like ‘Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorshands, Planet of The Apes, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children’ are some of my favorite movies.
24) Do you think you are a lucky person?
Yeess! I think I m very lucky.
25) A phrase or quotation to define yourself?
Memento Mori, Memento vivere (Remember to die Remember to live) is one of my favorite motto. And I m trying to do this with kindness, with discipline, with enjoying the moment and with love
credits: a special thank for the help to graphic designers beatrice bressi and Enrico Usberti
© 2019 All rights reserved
Made with ❤ with Elementor
Obrigado por compartilhar. Estou preocupado por não ter ideias criativas. É o seu artigo que me deixa cheio de esperança. Obrigado. Mas, eu tenho uma pergunta, você pode me ajudar?