Aysel Özkan

Aysel Özkan was born on 26 February 2002.[1] She has a one-year younger sister Cansel. Both girls grew up in the Children's Home Coordination Center (Turkish: Çocuk Evi Koordinasyon Merkezi, ÇEKOM) in Niğde. After their father's death in 2009, they followed their mother to her hometown Gaziantep. Due to family problems, the two sisters returned to Niğde one year later, and were placed in the ÇEKOM again.[2]

She is a student of Sports coaching in the Sports Science Faculty at Niğde Ömer Halisdemir University.[2]

Özkan started weightlifting in 2014 with the advice of a trainer in this sport branch.[2]

She took part in the U17 59 kg division of the 2019 European Youth Weightlifting Championships held in Eilat, Israel, and won the gold medal in the snatch, the bronze medal in the clean & jerk event taking the silver medal in total.[2] At the 2021 Junior World Weightlifting Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, she placed fourth in the 71 kg[3] Özkan took the silver medal in the snatch, the bronze medal in the clean & jerk event, reaching to the silver medal in total of the Juniors 64 kg division at the 2021 European Junior & U23 Weightlifting Championships in Rovaniemi, Finland.[2] At the 2021 World Weightlifting Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, she placed sixth in the 64 kg division. She won the bronze medal in the 71 kg snatch event and ranked four in total at the 2022 European Weightlifting Championships in Tirana, Albania.[4] She took the bronze medal in the 71 kg snatch event and placed fourth at the 2022 Junior World Weightlifting Championships in Heraklion, Greece.[5] She received the silver medal in the snatch, the gold medal in the clean & jerk event and the silver medal in total of the 71 kg division at the 2021 Islamic Solidarity Games in Konya, Turkey.[6][7] She broke the Games record of the clean & jerk event with 121 kg.[7] In 2022 at the European Junior & U23 Weightlifting Championships in Durrës, Albania, she became bronze medalist in total taking the bronze medal in the snatch and the silver in the clean & jerk event of the 71 kg division.[8] At the 2023 European Weightlifting Championships in Yerevan, Armenia, she won the silver medal in the 64 kg snatch event and ranked four in total.[9] She reached to the bronze medal at the 2024 European Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria.[10]

She exercises at the Turkey Olympics Preparation Center (Turkish: Türkiye Olimpiyat Hazırlık Merkezi, TOHM) in Konya.[6]