Mihael Žgank

Mihael Žgank (Turkish: Mikail Özerler; born 1 February 1994) is a Slovenian-born Turkish judoka.^[1]

Mihael Žgank

Personal information
Native name	Mikail Özerler
Nationality	Slovenian Turkish
Born	(1994-02-01) 1 February 1994 (age 31) Celje, Slovenia
Occupation	Judoka
Height	1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)
Sport
Country	Slovenia (2009–2017)  Turkey (2018– )
Sport	Judo
Weight class	‍–‍90 kg
Achievements and titles
Olympic Games	5th (2020)
World Champ.	(2017)
European Champ.	(2019)
Medal record Men's judo Representing  Turkey European Games 2019 Minsk ‍–‍90 kg European Championships 2023 Montpellier ‍–‍90 kg World Masters 2019 Qingdao ‍–‍90 kg IJF Grand Slam 2024 Paris ‍–‍90 kg 2019 Brasilia ‍–‍90 kg 2022 Paris ‍–‍90 kg 2022 Tel Aviv ‍–‍90 kg 2023 Baku ‍–‍90 kg 2024 Antalya ‍–‍90 kg IJF Grand Prix 2019 Antalya ‍–‍90 kg 2024 Odivelas ‍–‍90 kg 2020 Tel Aviv ‍–‍90 kg 2023 Zagreb ‍–‍90 kg 2019 Perth ‍–‍90 kg Mediterranean Games 2022 Oran ‍–‍90 kg Islamic Solidarity Games 2021 Konya ‍–‍90 kg 2021 Konya Men's team Representing  Slovenia World Championships 2017 Budapest ‍–‍90 kg World Masters 2016 Guadalajara ‍–‍90 kg IJF Grand Slam 2017 Paris ‍–‍90 kg IJF Grand Prix 2016 Budapest ‍–‍90 kg 2015 Tashkent ‍–‍90 kg 2016 Almaty ‍–‍90 kg 2017 Düsseldorf ‍–‍90 kg European U23 Championships 2014 Wrocław ‍–‍90 kg European Junior Championships 2011 Lommel ‍–‍90 kg 2012 Poreč ‍–‍90 kg
Profile at external databases
IJF	9361, 48433
JudoInside.com	65690
Updated on 31 March 2024

Career

Žgank competed for Slovenia at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, in the men's 90 kg, where he lost to Aleksandar Kukolj of Serbia in the round of 32.^[2][3]

At the 2017 World Judo Championships in Budapest, Žgank won the silver medal.^[4]

Later, Žgank switched nationality from Slovenia to Turkey due to financial reasons.^[5] He participated at the 2018 World Judo Championships in Baku under his new Turkish name Mikail Özerler.^[6] He competed for Turkey at the 2020 Summer Olympics.^[7]

He won one of the bronze medals in his event at the 2022 Judo Grand Slam Paris held in Paris, France. He also won one of the bronze medals in his event at the 2022 Judo Grand Slam Tel Aviv held in Tel Aviv, Israel.^[8] Žgank competed for Turkey at the 2024 Summer Olympics.^[9]