Talat Tunçalp had a long career in cycling, earning 31 Turkish national titles – 16 in the road race and 15 in the sprint – between 1933 and 1949 and representing his home country at two editions of the Summer Olympic Games. In 1936 he finished joint-eighth in the individual road race (with Auguste Garrebeek and Armand Putzeyse, both of Belgium) and did not place in the team event, as his teammates’ times were not recorded. In 1948 he and the entire Turkish team failed to finish. He took up the presidency of the Turkish Cycling Federation in 1950, after the conclusion of his competitive career, and held it for 18 years, founding the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey at his tenure’s end. His reported year of birth varied, but most obituaries listed him as being 101 at the time of his death; regardless of the actual date, he was the oldest living Turkish Olympian.
Türkiye