Türkiye’s oil wrestlers compete for gold and glory

Their torsos slick with oil and sweat, the fighters grapple and tussle for gold and glory, competing in a venerable Turkish sport dating back to the time of the Ottomans.

Every July, scores of wrestlers flock to the Kırkpınar tournament in the northwest of the country, a national and international attraction that gained UNESCO cultural recognition in 2010.

For the winners of this brutal contest, Turkish sporting immortality beckons.

For the losers, anguish and another year of training until they get their next shot.

"This is our Olympic Games," said Murat Kalender, one of the dozens of contestants this year.

With arms and abs as if hewn from stone, the 27-year-old warmed up in the shade of his van as he readied to take the field for the sixth year running.

"Our ancestors fought here," he told AFP, "and carrying on their legacy doesn't come without sacrifice."

Turkish oil wrestling is gruelling, and has grief woven into its illustrious history.

Legend has it that Edirne, capital of the Ottoman Empire until the fall of Constantinople, has hosted the Kırkpınar tournament each year since 1357.

The story goes that two soldiers who were brothers wrestled each other to the death, thus the festival was born.

Today, the fights may not be to the death, but the equipment worn by a "Pehlivan," meaning brave warrior in Persian, has not changed much.

Despite the prohibitive expense, olive oil is the only lubricant allowed, and the slickness makes balance as important as brute force in the fight.

The only item of clothing the wrestlers wear is leather trousers made of buffalo hide, studded and already slicked up to the britches, and weighing a whopping 10 kilograms.

With no fly to help the...