Derya Can was born in Çanakkale, Turkey on October 12, 1979. She studied physical education and sports at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University graduating in 2001. She has been working as a teacher since 2009.[1]
She is married to Tayfun Göçen, who is chief diver of a search and rescue team at the Turkish Coast Guard,[2] and also a free-diver.[3] She is a mother of two children, a 2011-born son Poyraz Mustafa and a daughter Derin Helen born in 2015.[2] The family lives in Canakkale.[1]
Sporting career[]
She began performing sport already in primary school years. After achieving regional success in athletics,[2] she switched over to taekwondo in the high school. She was called up to the national team camp for the 2000 Summer Olympics after her success as the runners-up at the Turkish championships. However, she had to hang up her boots after sustaining an injury on her knee.[1]
Performing scuba diving since her age of fifteen, she was inspired
for freediving in 2002 by her cousin, who was a former free-diver.[2] She was admitted to the Turkey national team already in 2003.[1]
Can Göçen holds many titles in diverse freediving disciplines at national, continental and world level competitions.[2] She was the world record holder in the jump blue apnea with fins (JB) discipline in 2008 with 128.49 m (421.6 ft). In 2013, she set a world record in the constant weight without fins at sea (CWT) discipline with 71 m (233 ft).[1] She improved her own world record from 2013 to 90.20 m (295.9 ft) in 2:29 minutes off Kaş, Antalya, Turkey on July 20, 2014.[3][4] Can Göçen set a national record in the CWT discipline, which was held by Şahika Ercümen, improving it to a depth of 77 m (253 ft) on September 2, 2016.[5][6] She placed third in the CWT discipline with 78 m (256 ft) in 2:02 minutes at the CMAS 2nd Apnea World Championship Outdoor held at Kaş, Turkey on October 4, 2016. Her achievement was a national record at the same time.[7][8] On December 16, 2016, she set a CMAS-recognized world record in the variable weight apnea without fins at sea (VNF) diving in Kaş to a depth of 94 m (308 ft) in 2:38 min. Former record belonged to Şahika Ercümen with 91 m (299 ft).[9] On February 25, 2017, she set a new CMAS-approved world record diving a distance of 120 m (390 ft) under the ice layer at the frozen lake Weissensee in Austria.[10]
She is a member of the Middle East Technical University's underwater sports club ODTÜ SAS.[3] She admits that she is afraid of the deep blue sea, however, continues with free-diving, which helps overcome her fear.[2]
World records[]
JB 128.49 m (421.6 ft) – 2008
CWT 71 m (233 ft) – 2013
CWT 90.20 m (295.9 ft) – July 20, 2014 in Kaş, Antalya, Turkey
VNF 94 m (308 ft) – December 16, 2016 in Kaş
Distance diving under ice 120 m (390 ft) – Weissensee, Austria