Figure skater leaves ice to meet fire

　　(ISTANBUL, Turkey, April 3) -- Tugba Karademir's beauty is what got her the honor of being Turkey's first torchbearer, the Turkish Olympic Committee (TMOK) President Togay Bayatli jokingly said on Thursday.

　　Karademir is not extremely popular in Turkey. Nor is her sport, figure skating.

　　The athlete can speak fluent English as she trains in Canada. She comes home to Turkey at least once a year for a week-long stay.

　　Her appearance is of course not the reason that Turkey selected her to be the country's first torchbearer.

　　Aksoy, who is in charge of the torch relay in Turkey, explained that Turkish citizens enjoy football the most, but that they are also interested in figure stating and other athletics.

　　He added that Karademir is a promising athlete, likely to claim a gold medal at the Winter Olympics.

　　The figure skater has her country's hopes on her shoulders. Turkey sees the athlete's success a major point in helping the country successfully bid for the Olympics in 2020.

　　Turkey has placed unsuccessful bids for the 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games.

　　Aksoy said that Turkey will ignore its successive bid rejections and continue to bid for the Olympic Games until it finally succeeds.

　　When Turkey bid for the 2008 Olympic Games in 2001, it lost to Beijing.

　　Aksoy remarked that although Turkey failed to win the bid to host the upcoming Olympics, it hoped that Beijing will host an excellent Olympic Games.