Ali Sofuoglu

Ali Sofuoglu was born on June 3, 1995, in Istanbul, Turkey. He began his karate career at a young age, achieving success at the cadet and junior levels. He became a European champion at the cadet level in 2010 and 2011. As a junior, he was a runner-up three times between 2011 and 2013. He further developed his skills at the U21 level, winning the World Championship in 2015 and securing two European championships in 2014 and 2016. His involvement in the senior Turkish national team began early, contributing to a bronze medal win at the European Championships in Adeje in 2012.

Sofuoglu transitioned into the adult competitive circuit, consistently achieving podium finishes. He earned silver medals in individual kata at the European Championships in İzmit (2017), Novi Sad (2018), and Guadalajara (2019), each time placing behind Damián Quintero. In addition to individual achievements, he secured a team silver in 2018 and a team bronze in 2019 at the European Championships. His performance at the 2018 World Championships in Madrid resulted in a bronze medal. He also took a silver medal at the European Games in Minsk in 2019, again behind Damián Quintero.

A significant milestone in his career was his participation and bronze medal win in the men’s kata event at the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics, held in 2021. He continued his success with multiple gold medals at the European Championships in Poreč (2021) and Gaziantep (2022) for both individual and team kata. In 2023, he secured a gold medal in men’s individual kata at the World Karate Championships in Budapest and another gold for team kata at the European Championships in Guadalajara and Zadar in 2024. He also won two gold medals at the 2021 Islamic Solidarity Games in Konya for individual and team kata. In May 2025, Ali Sofuoglu received a two-year suspension from competition due to an anti-doping rule violation related to whereabouts failures. This sanction resulted in the disqualification of his competitive results from October 11, 2023, onwards, a decision that was later partially overturned by CAS, reinstating his results from that period.