Özlem Yalman

Özlem Yalman — Biography

Özlem Yalman (born 30 April 1977 in Adana) is a Turkish former basketball player, a basketball referee and a physical education teacher. She studied Physical Education and Sports Teaching at Ege University in İzmir, and after graduating was appointed as a physical education teacher at a school in Antalya, where for a time she was the only instructor in her branch. During her university years she played basketball for Karşıyaka Basket in the Turkish Women's Basketball Second League.

She obtained her referee licence in 1995 and was promoted to A-class official status in 2004, going on to officiate matches in the Turkish Basketball Super League and the Turkish Women's Basketball League. In 2010 she completed the FIBA referee candidate programme in Bologna, Italy, and passed the follow-up exam in Gaziantep to join the FIBA list; from 2011 onward she has officiated numerous tournaments at world and European level, including the 2013 and 2015 EuroBasket Women championships, the 2014 FIBA World Championship for Women and several youth-category events.

In 2019 she officiated the EuroLeague Women Final Four and that same year's EuroBasket Women final, and in 2021 she again took charge of games at the EuroLeague Women Final Four and received further FIBA assignments; she was reported to have received new FIBA assignments again in 2022. In August 2026 she officiated the final of the FIBA Under-18 European Championship for Women. Yalman is regarded as one of Turkey's leading female basketball referees and continues to combine refereeing with teaching.