Şahika Ercümen: reading the discipline before the depth

Şahika Ercümen has helped bring freediving to a wider Turkish audience. A single depth figure cannot explain the sport: rope use, fins, weight arrangements, event type and verification conditions matter. This profile follows her career through those distinctions, explaining why categories and a responsible sporting culture are essential rather than reducing achievement to an inspiring spectacle.

Sport

Freediving · not scuba or marathon swimming

Championship record

CMAS 2025 · FIM 83 metres / fifth

Separate record attempt

October 2025 · variable weight without fins, 107 metres

Webz Fusion · Cumhuriyet Atlas · Source-based reference dossier · 2026-10-03

From Çanakkale to explaining underwater sport

Born in Çanakkale in 1985, Ercümen describes her relationship with freediving in a public 2013 TEDxYouth talk. The film is an account from an earlier career stage, not a current record table. Biography and interview complement one another: dated results establish achievements, while the athlete’s own account preserves how she understood the sport at that time.

Communicating diving to the public is a separate form of work. Viewers usually see a small number of underwater camera angles and little of the preparation or supervision. An exciting clip cannot provide a complete introduction. The motivational language of a talk should not be presented as a competition rule or a health recommendation applicable to everyone.

FIM, CWT and variable weight are not one event

FIM is free immersion, the rope-assisted category without fins; CWT refers to constant-weight diving with fins. Variable weight must not be confused with a category that maintains the same weight arrangement. These terms explain why figures such as 81, 85 and 107 metres cannot simply be placed on a single performance scale.

Before comparing records, identify the discipline, whether the event is a championship or a dedicated attempt, and its date. Calling the larger number automatically better erases the method. A championship placing and a verified record also express different achievements; winning one does not invalidate results in every other category.

Kaş 2021: achievements in two categories

TSSF’s report dated 2 October 2021 records Ercümen winning the Kaş Başka World Cup’s FIM category with an 81-metre Turkish record, and the CWT category at 85 metres. These are separate results within the event, not two descriptions of the same dive. The category labels give the figures their meaning.

The competition should not be relabelled a World Championship: its official designation was World Cup. Precision places an achievement correctly rather than diminishing it. Likewise, the Innovation Week portrait shown here comes from another setting. A photograph unrelated to a dive should not be labelled as evidence of that record attempt.

2025: a championship result and a record attempt

For the September 2025 CMAS World Championships off Mytikas, Greece, TSSF records an 83-metre FIM dive, an improved Turkish record and fifth place. A separate October 2025 report from Kaş describes a 107-metre world record in the variable-weight category without fins. Both deserve their own place in the chronology.

The difference between 83 and 107 is not simply an improvement in the same event; the categories differ. This profile preserves dated federation statements as historical achievements, not permanent claims about the present record in every discipline. Access to an official archived table does not establish that it is current: check its update label.

A responsible reading path for spectators

This biography is not diving instruction, a breath-holding programme or health advice. Do not imitate depth or breath-holding attempts from footage; the sport requires qualified instruction and appropriate safety arrangements. Appreciating the story does not require testing your own limits without support. Watching and understanding the categories can itself provide a rich sporting experience.

Compare Emre Sakcı’s pool distance-and-time records with Kuzey Tunçelli’s long-distance pacing. Freediving depth is a different measure, while marathon open-water swimming is another sport again. Continue to Çağla Dönertaş’s sailing profile to see how the same marine environment creates different relationships between equipment, technique and decisions.

A timeline of life, work and history

1. 1985

   Born in Çanakkale

   Birth year recorded in the TEDxYouth biography.

2. 2013

   Public talk

   A TEDxYouth archive introduces freediving in the athlete’s voice.

3. 2021

   Kaş World Cup

   FIM at 81 metres and CWT at 85 metres, separate categories.

4. September 2025

   World Championships

   FIM at 83 metres and fifth place, in TSSF’s report.

5. October 2025

   Kaş record attempt

   TSSF records 107 metres in variable weight without fins.

Watch and listen: a visual reading path

Use this selection alongside the analysis above. Supported YouTube publications can be watched on this page after you choose to load their player. The publisher’s rights and availability conditions apply; the player does not load or start automatically. Official publication links remain available as an alternative.

Questions and explanations