Despite fracturing a finger midmatch, Turkish para taekwondo athlete Mahmut Bozteke pressed on, defeating his Israeli opponent in a powerful statement of solidarity with Palestinians amid the conflict in Gaza.
Bozteke secured a silver medal in the K44 63 kg. semifinal bout at the European championship in Serbia on May 10, ultimately missing the final due to his injury.
However, he believes that his victory held far more significance as a symbolic stand against Israel.
"When I was competing against my Israeli opponent, I noticed blood on my glove during the match. But I didn't want to stop," Bozteke told Anadolu Agency (AA) in an interview.
"During the break, I checked under my glove and saw a slight tear between my middle and ring fingers, along with a small fracture," he said.
Bozteke added that facing an Israeli opponent in the semifinal motivated him despite the injury.
"In that moment, you don't feel the pain or the hurt much. Your only goal is to win that match, to finish that round," said Bozteke.
"That's why I didn't withdraw from the match," he said. "Israel is currently carrying out a genocide. The whole world is ignoring the genocide. We are fighting in the ring as their voice (Palestinians)."
"We will be in the courts and we will not give them (Israelis) any chance. As long as we are here, they will not succeed," he said.
Israel has killed over 35,800 Palestinians, mostly women and children, in Gaza since a Hamas incursion on Oct. 7, 2023, triggering the ongoing conflict.
Bozteke dismissed the injury and finished the match before receiving medical attention.
"After the match, medical teams intervened, and we went to the hospital. I couldn't make it to the final match and thus ended up with the silver medal," he said.
Bozteke was close to becoming the European champion for the fifth consecutive time but had to remain satisfied with the silver.
Reflecting on his past achievements, including a third-place finish in his debut Olympics, Bozteke acknowledged the disappointment of breaking his European championship streak.
"This was the first time something like this happened to me. I had never withdrawn from any competition before. It would have been my fifth consecutive European championship. I've been the European champion since 2019, so it is heavy on my heart to break the series of wins," he said.
However, looking ahead, Bozteke remains resolute in his pursuit of a gold medal at the upcoming 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris. "We have a more important tournament ahead of us, the Paralympic Games. We believe we will achieve bigger and better things there," he said.