He was born in 1934 in Çorak, a village of Çorum Province in northern Turkey. He began wrestling in the traditional Turkish karakucak style before changing to freestyle wrestling. It was not until the age of 18 that he began Olympic wrestling in 1952. It took him a relatively long time to grow into the Turkish top class of freestyle wrestlers. It was not until the late 1950s, at the age of 25, that he was selected for the Turkish national wrestling team. He was admitted to the national team after winning the national title in 1959, and received training by the renowned wrestlers such as Yaşar Doğu, Celal Atik and Nasuh Akar and Halit Balamir.^[3]

After the 1960 Olympic champion İsmail Ogan, who wrestled in Mahmut's weight class, ended his active career, the way was clear for him to compete in the international championships. From 1961, he competed for Turkey in many championships until 1968. However, it took until 1965 before he could win an international medal. Since Turkish wrestlers are among the strongest in the world in the freestyle along with the Soviet athletes and the U.S., it is surprising that Mahmut Atalay was given so many chances by the Turkish wrestling federation. In the end, he justified this trust when he became world champion in 1966 and Olympic champion in 1968. He achieved remarkable victories over the world-class wrestlers Abdollah Movahed, Iran, Guliko Sagaradze and Sarbeg Beriashvili, both USSR and Enju Valchev Dimov, Bulgaria.^[4]

He became the national champion 15 times, and besides his Olympic gold won several medals at other international competitions. In 1968, he was honored by the International Wrestling Federation with the award "Most Technical Wrestler of the World".

He retired from competitions in 1968 and then worked as a national wrestling coach for 16 years.^[5] Atalay died on 4 December 2004 in Ankara following a heart attack.^[6][7]

• Mahmut Atalay at the International Wrestling Database 
• Mahmut Atalay at Olympedia