Kuzey Tunçelli

Kuzey Tunçelli (born 30 August 2007) is a Turkish competitive swimmer. He holds both World Junior Records in long course and short course and the first Turkish swimmer ever to reach finals in the history of the Olympics, finishing 5th and breaking his own long course World Junior Record at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Coached by Aykut Çelik in Kocaeli at their own pool, he specializes in 800-meter and 1500-meter freestyle swimming events and currently swims for Fenerbahçe SK, located in Istanbul, Turkey.

Senior-level international competitions

Personal bests Long Course (50 m) 800 m freestyle – 7:46.52 (Otopeni, August 2025) 1500 m freestyle – 14:41.22 (Paris, August 2024)

Short Course (25 m) 800 m freestyle – 7:38.76 (Budapest, December 2024) 1500 m freestyle – 14:20.64 (Budapest, December 2024)

Swimming career Born in Kocaeli, Turkey as the only child to Oylum, an academic, and Melih Tunçelli, a former banking professional, Kuzey Tunçelli started swimming at age 5. His first club was Yıldızlar Swimming Club, a sports club specializing in swimming, where he took his first swimming lessons from Kamer Gözüm and met his coach, Aykut Çetin. He has been a licensed athlete of Fenerbahçe SK since November 2021.

2021 Tunçelli broke his first record at the age of 14, with a time of 15:05.25 in the 1500 m freestyle at the Turkey Turkcell Short Course Junior Individual Swimming Championship held in Istanbul. With this time, he improved the Turkish record in his age category by 25 seconds. He also won the "Best Athlete of the Tournament Award" at the same tournament.

In December, he was selected for the national team for the first time by breaking the record with a time of 15:38.05 in the 1500 m freestyle at the Turkey Şehit Kamil Turkcell Star-Youth and Open Age Long Course National Team Selections held in Gaziantep.

2022 In July, he finished 8th at the 2022 European Junior Swimming Championships held in Bucharest, Romania. A week later, he broke the record in the 1500 m with a time of 15:14.04 at the Turkey Arena Inter-Club Long Course Junior and Open Age Swimming Championships and Youth Individual Swimming Championships in Istanbul.

2023 Kuzey Tunçelli with his teammates after receiving the Olympic quota. In April 2023, at the Turkish National Team Trials for the Olympics held in Edirne, Tunçelli became the first swimmer 15 years old or under, with a time under 15 minutes for the 1500-meter freestyle event in the world.

In the European Junior Championships held in Belgrade in July, he broke the championship record in the 1500-meter freestyle and came in first. Tunçelli, who also swam in the 800-meter freestyle final, came in third in the European Juniors with a time of 07:52.39.

He won the gold medal in the 1500-meter freestyle swimming event at the 2023 European Youth Summer Olympic Festival in Maribor, Slovenia, and set a Festival record for boys with 14:54.16 on 25 July 2023. Kuzey Tunçelli with his coach Aykut Çelik at the 2023 World Junior Championship held in Netanya. In September, he came first in both the 800m and 1500m freestyle races at the 2023 World Aquatics Junior Swimming Championships, held in Netanya, Israel. Thus, he passed the Olympic A threshold in the 800m and earned the right to swim in two different distances at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics. as well as leading his team of Eren Kuru, Ahmet Burak Işık, and Tuncer Berk Ertürk to a bronze in the 4 x 200-meter freestyle relay.

At the 2024 Summer Olympics held in Paris, Tunçelli came second in his heat with a time of 7:47.29 in the 800m freestyle on July 29. He broke the Turkish record but did not make it to the finals, coming in 11th in the overall ranking.

In the 1500 m freestyle heats held at La Défense Arena on August 3, he finished his heat first with a time of 14:45.27 and advanced to the finals by coming in 5th overall, making history as Turkey's first athlete to advance to the finals in a swimming event at the Olympics.

Tunçelli, who finished the 1500m freestyle final on August 4th in the Olympics in 5th place, improved his own "World Junior Record" by 67 milliseconds with a time of 14:41.22.

Tunçelli also participated in the 10 km Men's Open Water Marathon Final for the first time in the Olympics and finished the race held on the Seine River in 23rd place with a time of 2:02:58.1.

In December 2024, Tunçelli set a world junior and Turkish record and won bronze in the men’s 1500 freestyle in Budapest, smashing Gregorio Paltrinieri’s official world junior record of 14:27.78, which had stood since the 2012 European Championships.

2025 Tunçelli won gold medals in the 800 m and 1500 m freestyle events at the European Junior Swimming Championships held in Šamorín in July, becoming the European Champion in the 1500 m for the third consecutive time. In the 800 m freestyle, he claimed his second consecutive European title, breaking both the games record and the Turkish national record. He also won bronze medals in the 400 m and freestyle events at the same championship.

Awards

October 2023: Piotr Nurowski Best European Young Athlete Award from the Association of European Olympic Committees (Shared the award with German rhythmic gymnast Darja Varfolomeev.)

November 2024: Mustafa V. Koç Sports Award (Shared the award with the Turkey women's national goalball team.)