They welcomed 2025 by entering the cold waters of the Bosphorus

Professional swimmers who gathered on the Üsküdar Kuzguncuk coast welcomed the year 2025 by entering the sea. The swimmers, who jumped into the sea from the Kuzguncuk coast, swam in the cold water just minutes before the new year.

Licensed swimmer Faruk İlgüy said, "We have been welcoming the new year with the same ritual for about 5 or 6 years. We will hopefully welcome 2025 in the water as well. Our wish is for a very auspicious year. A happy, peaceful, and hopeful year. Of course, health above all. Both for our country and for us. We welcome it in the sea because we are swimmers. We enter the sea in summer and winter. We are licensed athletes; we do not enter unconsciously. We take our precautions. Cold water is also healing for us. We enter regularly. We welcome friends who want to swim consciously. We wish everyone a happy new year."

Stating that they have traditionally welcomed the new year by entering the sea every year, Mehmet Serkan Öztan said, "We will leave 2024 behind by entering the sea at 00:00, which has now become a tradition, and transition into 2025. I wish for the year 2025 to bring peace, tranquility, happiness, and well-being to all of humanity. As I said, we are waiting for the new year to come with excitement and impatience. How did the old year go? Actually, 2024 did not go badly. But of course, we have hopes for the new year. Hopefully, everything will be for the best for our nation, our homeland, and humanity," he expressed.

Emirhan Gülbey said, "First of all, I wish a beautiful year for our entire homeland and nation. Other than that, I want the violence against women, animals, and children to end. Besides that, I want my educational career to go better. Happy new year to everyone, good evening."

Kubilay Çimen, Dean of the Faculty of Sports Sciences at Istanbul Gelişim University, who participated in the event of welcoming the new year by entering the sea, said, "I am here with my daughter today. We did not turn down Faruk's kind invitation. I have also been swimming in open water for many years. I am a master swimmer. Today, we entered the new year in open water; we love open water. We are used to it. I came to enter the Bosphorus for the new year. Hopefully, we will enter together. We wish our country health, peace, and happiness in the new year. Hopefully, the year 2025 will be auspicious for the whole country. May it be a beautiful year. I wish for health above all. I wish everyone a year as they desire," he said.

News Source: İHA