Turkey will be competing in the Summer Olympic in Rio de Janeiro with 103 athletes, 48 of them female. The games, set for Aug. 5-21, were a hot topic in Turkey prior to the July 15 attempted coup.

People could be heard debating whether the women’s basketball team could bring home a medal, while cheering for them with a tune by pop star Candan Ercetin. In her catchy song, Ercetin, who is a board member of the Galatasaray Sports Club, refers to the female basketball players as angels of the hoop, making it a popular way to rally sports enthusiasts for the 2016 games.

Turkey has been participating in the Olympics since 1908, 15 years before the new republic was established. However, its progress has not been impressive. Given that Turkey collected its highest number of medals (12) in the 1948 Olympics in London and its highest number of gold medals (7) in the 1960 Rome Olympics, we can say that most of the younger generations have not caught Olympic fever.

Now with all the news pouring in about the coup plotters and victims, the Olympics is no longer a banner story. Indeed, it is not even clear yet whether the games will be aired on any Turkish TV channels. As odd as it may be, unless TRT secures an agreement, there will be no way to watch the games in Turkey.