Outside of professional marathon swims, World Aquatics Championships, and masters swimming events, channel swimming and marathon swimming are largely solo endeavors.

But athletes are usually very competitive people. Even within solo channel swimming community, there are rivalries. Most are unknown and quite rivalries. But rivalries have long existed in the sport over the last century.

In the rarefied air of Oceans Seven community, there are also quiet, but intense, rivalries.

One such competition is between two young female Turkish swimmers: Aysu Türkoğlu (@aysu.turkoglu) and Bengisu Avcı (@bengisuavcı). They both would love to become the first person from Turkey to achieve the Oceans Seven.

Türkoğlu is the younger of the two at 23 years old and has completed four of the Oceans Seven channels to date in addition to competing in triathlons:

• English Channel in July 2022 in 16 hours 28 minutes (youngest Turkish swimmer at 21 years old)
• Cook Strait in March 2024 in 7 hours 21 minutes
• North Channel in August 2023 in 11 hours 48 minutes (first Turkish woman to complete)
• Catalina Channel in September 2024 in 11 hours 36 minutes (youngest Turkish swimmer to become a Triple Crowner)

Avcı is older at 27 and started her Oceans Seven journey in 2018 with four channels done, in addition to completing the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming and competing in IISA events:

• English Channel in August 2018 in 11 hours 29 minutes (fastest Turkish woman)
• Catalina Channel in September 2022 in 11 hours 36 minutes (fastest Turkish woman)
• Strait of Gibraltar in April 2023 in 3 hours 24 minutes (fastest overall Turkish swimmer)
• Cook Strait in February 2024 in 10 hours 40 minutes (first Turkish swimmer to complete)
• Molokai Channel, second attempt tonight

Both women started as age group swimmers: Türkoğlu at the age of 7 and Avcı at the age of 6. They both swam competitively in the pool until they started doing short local open water races in Turkey. They both gradually increased their distances in the open water and both did their first channel swim across the English Channel.

Avcı did not finish her first English Channel attempt in 2017 due to hypothermia, but she came back the next year to complete an 11 hour 29 minute crossing and became the youngest Turkish female swimmer at that time. Four years later, Türkoğlu set off on her own English Channel crossing and completed it on the first attempt in 16 hours 28 minutes.

While Avcı completed crossings of the Catalina Channel and the Strait of Gibraltar, they both made successful crossings of the Cook Strait in New Zealand within a month of each other. Türkoğlu completed her crossing in 7 hours 21 minutes while Avcı crossed in 10 hours 40 minutes.

Türkoğlu completed her attempt at the North Channel in 11 hours 48 minutes to become the first Turkish woman to do so. Avcı was pulled out of the North Channel in her recent September 2024 attempt with hypothermia.

Avcı will make her second attempt tonight of the Molokai Channel from Molokai Island to Oahu with captain Michael Twigg-Smith after being pulled due to jellyfish stings on her first attempt in May 2024.

UPDATE: Avcı entered the water at 4:28 pm local Hawaiian time at South Pāpōhaku Beach on Molokai Island. At 10:20 pm, Twigg-Smith reported that she is more than halfway across to Oahu. She is swimming strongly – and happily – with no issues. She has reapplied the Sting No More jellyfish ointment at the same point where she encountered jellyfish on her earlier attempt this September. Her Molokai Channel tracker is here. She completed the crossing in 12 hours 10 minutes.

Both young women are lifelong swimmers with plenty of experience and good teams supporting them. They are both personable. They have large social media followings on Instagram: @aysu.turkoglu and @bengisuavcı. They are often featured on Turkish television and media. They enjoy corporate sponsorships. They are friendly, passionate, very capable, and personable ambassadors of the sport – with great expectations for their futures.

Onwards to two successful completions of the Oceans Seven.

Oceans Seven Swimmers

As of September 2024, 33 humans in history have completed the Oceans Seven:

1. Stephen Redmond (Ireland)
2. Anna Carin Nordin (Sweden)
3. Michelle Macy (USA)
4. Darren Miller (USA)
5. Adam Walker (UK)
6. Kimberley Chambers (New Zealand)
7. Antonio Argüelles (Mexico)
8. Ion Lazarenco Tiron (Moldavia and Ireland)
9. Rohan Dattatrey More (India)
10. Abhejali Bernardová (Czech Republic)
11. Cameron Bellamy (South Africa)
12. Lynton Mortensen (Australia)
13. Thomas Pembroke (Australia)
14. Nora Toledano Cadena (Mexico)
15. Mariel Hawley Dávila (Mexico)
16. André Wiersig (Germany)
17. Elizabeth Fry (USA)
18. Attila Mányoki (Hungary)
19. Jonathan Ratcliffe (UK)
20. Jorge Crivilles Villanueva (Spain)
21. Adrian Sarchet (Guernsey)
22. Prabhat Koli (India)
23. Dina Levačić (Croatia)
24. Herman van der Westhuizen (South Africa)
25. Andy Donaldson (Scotland)
26. Stephen Junk (Australia)
27. Kieron Palframan (South Africa)
28. Bárbara Hernández Huerta (Chile)
29. Mark Sowerby (Australia)
30. Paul Georgescu (Romania)
31. Zach Margolis (USA
32. Petar Stoychev (Bulgaria)
33. Nathalie Pohl (Germany)

© 2024 Daily News of Open Water Swimming

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