A Nymph

Born in Izmir in 1996, ultra-marathon swimmer Bengisu Avcı became the first Turkish athlete to complete Ocean’s 7. Ocean’s 7 consists of seven challenging and long courses at different points around the world, and athletes who complete all stages will swim enough strokes to circle the world several times.

Bengisu Avci, who began swimming at the age of six at the Ege University Swimming Club, has been competing in the open water discipline since 2010. Having crossed the English Channel in 2018, the Catalina Channel in 2022, the Strait of Gibraltar in 2023, the Cook Strait and Molokai Channel in 2024, the athlete broke the European women’s record with a time of 12 hours and 10 minutes on Molokai.

The swimmer, who crossed the North Channel, the sixth leg of the Ocean’s, on July 19 this year, prepared for the final leg after her performance of 10 hours, 48 seconds and went to Japan. Her intended swim route was Tsugaru, and upon arriving in Tokyo, her channel crossing was postponed for three days due to a tsunami waming issued following the 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Russia. Bengisu Avci, who began the course, famous for its rapids, on August 3, arrived in Hokkaido after a roughly 15-hour swim. Thus, the athlete added a new title to her list and became the fortieth person to achieve this success. Sharing her feelings on her social media account as soon as she landed, Bengisu Avcı wrote the following to her followers:

“We did it!I completed the seven oceans in seven years and one day in Tsugaru Japan. I’m experiencing emotions that I can’t describe with words. Can one swim against the current for 15 hours? Apparently, yes. Just fifteen days after the North Channel. Tsugaru was much harder than we had planned. Each hour a new current starts, a wave comes out in an instant, we were drafting with our boat. On the map, you can see the part where we entered the plateau. Even though I increased the pace so much that my shoulders felt like they were going to fall off, it was only enough to keep us in place for exactly fifty minutes. I wanted to cry when I found out that we were only halfway through, even after eight hours. Even though I gave it my all, it wasn’t enough. They said there were 14 more kilometers to go. At that time, Paul and the other swimmer who started with me were pulled out because they couldn’t overcome the current. Everything was going wrong. All the years passed before my eyes. I yelled to our interpreter Taka, “Tell the captain! I can do it, I can increase my speed. Please don’t pull me out!” Even when I thought I was finished, there were still hours left; but somewhere inside me, I found that strength. I hit dozens of walls, mentally and physiologically. Then I sped up again. Finally, our referees and our captain believed in us, and in the final hours, Aslı Vural and Dr.Seren Akıncı kept up a race-like pace for me, and we swam like that. We barely made it. Our emotions were all over the place.

We were exhausted. When we got home, we found ourselves hugging and crying, saying, “What did we go through?” I couldn’t have accomplished this without you. I would like to thank everyone who believed in me, my team, my family, my spouse, my teammates, my friends, my partner AXA Türkiye, everyone I met and became a part of my journey, my financial and moral sponsors, and everyone who cheered me on from the bottom of their hearts. I became the first Turkish athlete and the fortieth person in the world to be listed in Ocean’s 7. I kept my promise.”

Bengisu Avcı’s Titles
First Turkish athlete to complete Ocean’s 7
First Turkish athlete to cross the Cook Strait
First Turkish athlete to cross the Molokai Channel
Fastest Turkish athlete to cross Gibraltar
Fastest Turkish female athlete to cross the English Channel
First Turkish athlete to cross the Catalina Channel
IWSA Ice Championships 200m breaststroke world record
Three gold medals at the IISA International Ice Swimming Championships