Cansel Özkan

Cansel Özkan was born in 2002. She is twin sister of Aysel. The sisters grew up in the Children's Home Coordination Center (Turkish: Çocuk Evi Koordinasyon Merkezi, ÇEKOM) in Niğde. After their father's death in 2009, the girls moved to Gaziantep following the mother. One year later, they returned to Niğde due to family problems. They were placed in the ÇEKOM again.^[1]

Özkan started weightlifting together with her sister.^[1]

She participated at the 2019 Youth World Weightlifting Championships in Las Vegas, United States, where she won the gold medal in the 55 kg snatch event.^[2] The same year, she won the bronze medal in the snatch, the silver medal in the clean & jerk event and the bronze medal in total, competing in the same 59 kg division with her sister,at the European Youth Weightlifting Championships in Eilat, Israel.^[3] She took the silver medals in the 59 kg snatch event and in total at the 2021 Junior World Weightlifting Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.^[4] At the 2021 European Junior & U23 Weightlifting Championships in Rovaniemi, Finland, she received the silver medal in the 59 kg snatch event and the bronze medal in total.^[5] She was not successful at the 2021 World Weightlifting Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan as well as at the 2022 Junior World Weightlifting Championships in Heraklion, Greece. In the 59 kg snatch event at the 2022 Mediterranean Games in Oran, Algeria, she took the bronze medal.^[6] Özkan won the bronze medal in the snatch event of the 59 kg division at the 2021 Islamic Solidarity Games in Konya, Turkey.^[7]