Yıldız Aras
Yıldız Aras (born November 10, 1977 in Istanbul, Turkey) is a Turkish female karateka competing in the kumite +60 kg and open divisions. Aras is member of the Kocaeli Büyükşehir Belediyesi Kağıt Spor Kulübü Karate team. As of May 2009, she is world's best in women's kumite open division.
She was born as the fifth daughter to her father from Kars and to her mother from Sivas. She is a graduate of the School of Physical Education and Sports at the Marmara University in Istanbul.
Inspired from the TV films depicting martial arts that became very popular in Turkey in the late 1980s, she entered in 1987, at the age of only 10, into a karate course in her neighborhood. She became a member of the Ersoy Çırlar Sport Club. Her first trainer was Yüksel Baltay, a former national karateka.
Aras was admitted to the national team in 1994. She has been nicknamed by foreign sportspeople as the "Strong Girl". Holding three world champion titles, seven European champion titles, and three Mediterranean Games champion titles, she is the most successful Turkish sportsperson ever, but without any Olympic medal, since karate is not an acknowledged discipline at the Olympic Games.
As of May 9, 2009, she ranks:
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