Nilay Kartaltepe

Nilay Kartaltepe — Biography

Nilay Kartaltepe was one of the long-serving point guards of the Turkish Women's Basketball Super League and of the women's national team. She won four league titles, five Turkish Cups and three Presidential Cups, and with the national team took gold at the 2005 Mediterranean Games and silver at EuroBasket 2011. She retired as a player at the end of the 2021-22 season and now works for the Turkish Basketball Federation as Director of Women's National Teams.

She turned professional in 1996 and was a guard who ran the game on court, spending her career with a number of Super League sides: she wore the shirts of Fenerbahçe, Beşiktaş and Bursaspor, played for Botaş and, in later years, for AGÜ Spor and OGM Ormanspor, renewing her contract with Ormanspor in 2021. She won the league in 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2007 and finished second in 2010; she took the Turkish Cup every year from 2004 to 2007 and again in 2010, and the Presidential Cup in 2004, 2005 and 2007. With the national team she also took part in the 2012 London Olympics.

After her playing days she moved into administration. In June 2025 she said Turkey was ready for the European Championship. Since 2010 she has been married to former national volleyball player Cengizhan Kartaltepe.