İrem Karamete


İrem Karamete is a Turkish female fencer competing in the foil event at the 2016 Summer Olympics. She is the first Turkish fencer to qualify for the Olympics since 1984. Currently, she is a student at Özyeğin University in Istanbul.

Early life

Karamete was born into a fencing family in Istanbul, Turkey on June 20, 1993. Her father Mehmet Karamete coached the Israeli and German national fencing teams, as well as his spouse Nili Drori. İrem's mother Nili competed in the women's individual foil events for Israel at the 1976 and 1984 Summer Olympics. Her older sister Merve Karamete also competed fencing, and was a member of the national team.
After completing her secondary education at the private Basınköy High School, Karamete entered Özyeğin University in 2011. While her career choice was initially dentistry, she decided to study industrial engineering instead.

Sports career

Karamete began fencing at the age of ten.

Domestic

Karamete became the Turkey Juniors champion and won the Turkish Juniors Cup. In 2011, she became runner-up at the Turkey Fencing Championships. Karamete captured the gold medal at the Turkey Fencing Champions in 2014. She was the runner-up of the Intra Universities Fencing Championships of Turkey in 2012, and the winner in 2014 and 2015.
Karamete is the captain of her university's fencing team.

International

Karamete won a silver medal at the European Cadets Cup. In 2012, she took the gold medal at the 9th Mediterranean Junior and Cadet Fencing Championship held in Poreč, Croatia with the Turkish women's fencing team after defeating France in the final.
Karamete won a bronze medal at the Mediterranean Championships. She competed at the 2013 World Fencing Championships in Budapest, Hungary, but did not advance to the Round of 32. Karamete took the bronze medal at the 2013 Mediterranean Games in Mersin, Turkey. She captured a silver medal in Cancún, Mexico, a gold medal in Antalya, Turkey, and a bronze medal each in Koçarlı, Turkey, and Copenhagen, Denmark at the satellite tournament events of the 2014–15 Fencing World Cup. She represented her country at the 2015 European Games in Baku, Azerbaijan. Karamete was the silver medalist at the 2015 Balkan Championships in Niš, Serbia.
Karamete qualified for participation at the 2016 Rio Olympics after a successful showing at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Qualification tournament held in Prague, Czech Republic. In doing so, she became the first Turkish fencer to compete at the Olympics since the 1984 competition.