Demir Atasoy

Demir Atasoy (also Dmitry Cherkasov, born May 26, 1987, in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukrainian SSR) is a Ukrainian-born Turkish swimmer, who specialized in the breaststroke events. Laureate of the National Rating «Top 100 Outstanding Men of Kyiv Region».

Career Atasoy qualified for the men's 100 m breaststroke at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, by clearing a FINA B-standard time of 1:02.43 from the Croatian Open Championships in Dubrovnik. He challenged seven other swimmers on the fourth heat, including three-time Olympian Jakob Jóhann Sveinsson of Iceland. Atasoy edged out Serbia's Čaba Silađi to take the second spot by six hundredths of a second (0.06), posting his lifetime best of 1:02.25. Atasoy failed to advance into the semifinals, as he placed thirty-ninth overall on the first night of preliminaries.

At the 2013 Mediterranean Games held in Mersin, Turkey, he won the bronze medal in the men's 4 × 100 m medley relay.

He won four gold medals and one silver medal at the 2013 Islamic Solidarity Games held in Palembang, Indonesia.

Achievements