Aysu Türkoglu is now a channel swimmer!
Her success factor was always thinking positive, having faith, trusting herself focusing on her end goal. During the swim, she thought about the finishing moment, how she would get out of the water, and feeling her proud moment. She visualized her success before and during the big swim.
Her dedication started 4 years ago. She decided to swim the English Channel, and her motivation to train hard never stopped. She found the best trainer, she had the best family support and overcame every obstacle throughout the journey.
When I asked her: What was the biggest obstacle? She said, it was getting the visa and the pandemic situation!
She fought for the visa, waited for another year when she was denied a visa in 2021, trained more. She transformed her frustration of not being able to swim in 2021 into a productive positive energy and used the additional time for training. She saw the delay to her swim as an opportunity to be more prepared than ever.
In the English Channel, she asked herself: If others can do it, then WHY cannot I do it? There is no reason not to achieve this target if other people can do it as well.
That’s the spirit and mindset which we need to follow in every situation and challenge. If you train hard and work hard and believe in yourself, there is no reason to fail.
She had challenging moments and cried.
Of course, being a channel swimmer is not easy. If it were easy, than everyone could do it.
It was also hard for her. After a few hours, she started to cry. After 12 hours, she saw the French coast, and a few minutes later, what happened? The coast disappeared. She needed to swim further and further and further, and she saw no coast anymore. She began to lose her nerves and started crying.
After a few minutes, she motivated herself again. She realized that crying, being angry to the situation would not help. So she decided to continue with dedication and faith.
What a great story of dedication and optimism.
I was curious: Did you feel the cold? How did you prepare for cold water?
She said that she was so well prepared that she didn’t feel the cold at all. Even in the summer time, her dad brought her ice many times, and she took ice baths in her house. She swam non-stop year around in the sea did some very long swims. Her latest long swim was in Bodrum, 6 hours in 16 degrees of cold water.
We can be so proud of her and feel inspired. Out of comfort zone, magic can happen.
Her motto:
Never give up!! Keep going!!
We can do more than we think. Our body and mind are so much capable.
I cannot agree more. We are more than we think, and we have so much unlocked potential. This swim shows what the human being is capable of. Thank you Aysu for reminding it to us again.
Aysu created her own magic out of comfort zone, and now she can keep smiling and keep inspiring. Congrats Aysu and congrats to her support team! Amazing achievement well done!!
Further details about the swim:
English Channel swim: