Merve Dinçel
Merve Dinçel Kavurat, also known as Merve Kavurat, is a Turkish taekwondo athlete. She is a two-time gold medalist at the World Taekwondo Championships.
Sport career
Merve Dinçel has won a gold medal at the World Taekwondo Women's Open Championships held in Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh in 2021. She won the gold medal in the women's 49 kg event at the 2022 European Championships held in Manchester, United Kingdom.She won the gold medal in the women's 49 kg event at the 2022 Mediterranean Games held in Oran, Algeria.
Dinçel, in the women's 49 kg category at the 2023 World Taekwondo Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan, defeated Elizaveta Ryadninskaya, a Russian athlete competing as an individual athlete, in the second round and advanced to the third round after passing the first round without a match. She defeated Dunya Abutaleb from Saudi Arabia in the third round, then defeated Botakoz Kapanova from Kazakhstan in the quarterfinals and reached the semifinals. In the 49 kg final, she won against the reigning Olympic champion Panipak Wongpattanakit from Thailand.
Later that year, Dinçel won the silver medal in the women's 49 kg weight class at the 2023 European Games and the 2023 World University Games.
At the 2023 World Grand Prix, she took the bronze medal in Manchester, United Kingdom, and the gold medal in Paris, France. She won the gold medal at the 2023 World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan. She was honored with the "Best Sportswoman of 2023" award by the World Taekwondo.
In 2024, she won the silver medal in the women's 49kg event at the European Taekwondo Championships held in Belgrade, Serbia.
She competed in the 49 kg at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France, and advanced to the quarterfinals. After losing her match in the quarterfinals, she won the repechage match. She fought in the bronze medal match against Lena Stojković and placed fifth after losing the fight.
At the 2025 World Taekwondo Championships held in Wuxi, China, Merve Dinçel Kavurat competed in the women's 53 kg category and won the gold medal, becoming world champion for the second consecutive time. On the fourth day of the competition, Kavurat advanced directly to the second round without a match. She defeated Stavroula Dessyla of Greece in the second round, Mobina Nematzadeh of Iran in the third round, Po-ya Su of Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals, and Jana Khattab of Egypt in the semifinals to reach the final. In the gold medal match, she beat Dunya Abu Taleb of Saudi Arabia 2–0 to claim her second career world title.