Bengisu Avcı

Bengisu Avcı (born 1996) is a Turkish swimmer specializing in open water swimming. She is holder of the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming. As of February 2024, she completed four of the Oceans Seven swims.

Sport career
Avcı started her swimming career at age six in the Ege University Swim Club. In 2011, she was admitted to the national team, where she was a member until 2015. She switched over to marathon swimming with the recommendation of her coach in the Ege University Swim Club in 2013. In the beginning, she competed in the 3K and 5K, later in the 7.5K and 10K distances. She works as a swimming coach.

In 2016, she swam within a Turkish group the 34 km distance from Naples to Capri Island in the Tyrrhenian Sea in Italy. In 2017, Avcı attempted to swim the English Channel, which she had to give up after seven hours due to hypothermia in the 16 C water. On 3 August the next year, she swam the same course of 34 km from England to Cap Gris-Nez, France in a time of 11:29. She became the second Turkish woman and the youngest in Turkey.

On 5-6 September 2022, she took up the Oceans Seven series by swimming the 34 km-long Catalina Channel between Santa Catalina Island and Los Angeles, United States in a time of 11:59 as the first Turkish woman.

The next year, she swam 48.5 km around the Manhattan Island, New York, United States, also known as the 20 Bridges Swim. She was awarded the  Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming by the World Aquatics. She became the first Turkish woman to receive this title.

On 8 August 2023, in the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Turkish Republic, she swam the 30 km-long course between the historic ANZAC Cove and the island Gökçeada in the northern Aegean Sea together with Murat Öz in a time of 10:36.

Also in August 2023, she swam the Strait of Gibraltar between Europe and Africa. She completed the fourth swim of the Oceans Seven with the 26 km-long Cook Strait swim between New Zealand’s North and South Islands on 13 February 2024.

For her fifth swim of the Oceans Seven series, she tried to cross the around 45 km-long Kaiwi Channel, also known as the Molokaʻi Channel, between the islands Oahu and Molokai in Hawaii, United States. On 13 May 2024, she started from Molokai Island in the evening hours, and swam through the night. Twelve hours into the swim, in the last hours before the finish, she came repeadly into contact with jellyfish and pieces of moss. She ignored the burning from the contact, however, after an intense burning, possibly from a contact with a man o' war, a jellyfish-like siphonophorae or with a box jellyfish, she had to give up and get onto the escorting boat. It was reported that her health was in good condition.

Avcı is nicknamed "Okyanus Kızı" ("Daughter of Ocean").

Personal life
Avcı was born to Hüseyin and Meserret Avcı in İzmir in 1996. She studied sports coaching in the Sports Science Faculty of Ege University in İzmir.