The youngest of the five finalists for the 2023 Piotr Nurowski Prize is Türkiye’s Kuzey Tunçelli, who looks set to be a future star in the pool.

In 2023, the swimmer has achieved the Olympic qualifying time for Paris 2024 in the 1500m freestyleand the Olympic consideration time in the 800m freestyle. He won the 2023 European Junior Championship in the 1500m freestyle, setting a new European Juniors record, and also won the European Youth Olympic Festival Maribor 2023 1500m freestyle, again taking a new games record.

On being shortlisted for the award, Kuzey said: “My top priority is to win the first Olympic medal in swimming for Türkiye and make my country proud. This is my biggest aspiration. Another important goal is to have a long and healthy career, to leave a lasting impact on the world and inspire future generations of Turkish swimmers.”