Latife Selin Şahin (born 19 September 1992) is a Turkish women's

wheelchair basketball Wheelchair basketball is basketball played by people with varying physical disabilities that disqualify them from playing a non-disabled sport. These include spina bifida, birth defects, cerebral palsy, paralysis due to accident, amputations (of ...

player. She is a 1-point player competing for Reggio Calabria BiC in Italy. She is a member of the Turkish women's national wheelchair basketball team. She is the first Turkish women's wheelchair basketball player to play in a foreign country.

Early life

Selin Şahin was born in

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

on 19 September 1992. At the age of three, she was partially paralyzed with permanent spinal cord damage following a traffic accident. She lives in the

Başakşehir Başakşehir is one of the 39 second-level districts in Greater Istanbul, Turkey. The population of Başakşehir is 311,095 as of 2012. It is in the European part of Istanbul. History Former name of the area was Azatlık. The area specialized ...

district of

Istanbul Province ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_in ...

and studies

Sports Administration The Sports Administration (SA; ) is a branch of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China (Taiwan). History The Sport Administration was initially established in 1932 as the Sports Council (體育委員會). On 12 January 1998, the Sp ...

Istanbul University , image = Istanbul_University_logo.svg , image_size = 200px , latin_name = Universitas Istanbulensis , motto = tr, Tarihten Geleceğe Bilim Köprüsü , mottoeng = Science Bridge from Past to the Future , established = 1453 1846 1933 ...

's Faculty of

Sports science Sports science is a discipline that studies how the healthy human body works during exercise, and how sport and physical activity promote health and performance from cellular to whole body perspectives. The study of sports science traditionally inc ...

. She married Rıdvan Nicolas Erdem (ex Çaykur Rizespor and Gaziantep FK translator) on 25th december 2022.

Sports career

In the first year of high school, her physical education teacher advised her to take up a sport for disabled people, which she ignored. Şahin began playing basketball at the age of 18 after she met Erdem Göksel, the general manager of the women's wheelchair basketball side of Beşiktaş J.K. during a concert held by the Municipality of Başakşehir. Göksel invited her to watch his team play against the Galatasaray women's wheelchair basketball team. She was very impressed and after the match, she decided to take up the sport. Şahin is tall at . She is a

1 point player 1 point player is a disability sport classification for wheelchair basketball. It is for people who have significant loss of trunk control. Definition This classification is for wheelchair basketball. Classification for the sport is done by the I ...

in the

disability sport classification Disability sports classification is a system that allows for fair competition between people with different types of disabilities. Historically, the process has been overseen by 2 groups: specific disability type sport organizations that cover mul ...

Club

Beşiktaş J.K.

Şahin joined the Beşiktaş J.K. women's wheelchair basketball team. After one season, she realized that she had "no chance to develop herself" with the club. The team's trainer and general manager told her that they felt she could not succeed as a basketball player and suggested she take up a different sport. She did not want to abandon the sport. To improve her basketball skills, she wanted to transfer to another club.

Engelli Yıldızlar & 1907 Fenerbahçe

She moved to the Engelli Yıldızlar Kulubü ("Disabled Stars Club"), where she played six seasons. In 2018, the team was taken over by Fenerbahçe S.K., and was renamed 1907 Fenerbahçe Engelli Yıldızlar. She helped this team win the championship title of the Turkish Women's Wheelchair Basketball Super League in the 2018–19 season.

Reggio Calabria

After returning from the 2019 Women's European Wheelchair Basketball Championship, Division A held between 30 June and 7 July in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

, Netherlands, where she played for Turkey national team, she received transfer offers from several foreign clubs. In August 2019, she signed a contract with the Italian club Reggio Calabria in Carrozzina under coach Antonio Cugliandro. In October she began to play in the 2019–20 season. Murat Saltan, head coach of the Turkey women's national wheelchair basketball team, said Şahin is the first Turkish women's wheelchair basketball player to play in a foreign country.

International

After playing on Turkey's women's national junior wheelchair basketball team, Şahin was selected for the Turkey women's national wheelchair basketball team and took part in three of their six matches at the 2019 IWBF Women's European Championship Division A match.

Honors

Club

* Turkish Women's Wheelchair Basketball Super League champion (2018–19)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sahin, Selin Living people 1992 births Sportspeople from Istanbul People from Başakşehir Istanbul University alumni Turkish women's wheelchair basketball players Turkish expatriate basketball people in Italy