07.09.2025 19:21
Turkey is experiencing a golden age in sports: The number of athletes has increased 63 times in the last 20 years. Turkey, which has made historic progress in sports over the past two decades, saw the number of athletes, excluding football, rise from just 278,000 in 2002 to 17 million 640 thousand by 2025. The number of licensed athletes has exceeded 7.1 million, while the number of active athletes has surpassed 4.5 million.
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Sports have now entered the lives of every segment of society, from children's schoolyards to professional fields, from neighborhood clubs to Olympic centers. With the investments and projects implemented by the Ministry of Youth and Sports, access to sports has been facilitated while international successes have also increased.
REACHED MILLIONS OF ATHLETES
Excluding football, the total number of athletes, which was 278 thousand in 2002, reached 17 million 640 thousand by 2025. The number of licensed athletes has increased to 7.1 million, while the number of active athletes has risen to 4.5 million. The number of sports clubs has also expanded from 6 thousand to 24 thousand 847, spreading widely.
INCREASE IN TRAINING CENTERS
The Olympic Preparation Centers (TOHM), established for the first time in Turkey, are now operating in 25 cities. In these centers, 1,279 athletes are preparing for the Olympics, while the number of Athlete Training Centers has increased from 28 to 61, where 4,148 athletes are receiving training.
9 MILLION STUDENTS THROUGH TALENT SCANS
As part of the Sports Talent Scanning program, 9.1 million students have been scanned since 2017, and 456 thousand students have been directed to sports. In the 2024-2025 period alone, the number of students undergoing scanning exceeded 1 million.
SUCCESS IN THE INTERNATIONAL ARENA
Turkey has started to reap the rewards of its investments in sports in international competitions. In 2002, Turkey had only 1,481 medals, but it began to rise from 2020 onwards. In 2020, 1,832 medals were won, 4,418 in 2021, 6,492 in 2022, 8,450 in 2023, and 9,747 in 2024. As of 2025, the current medal count is 3,313.
REACHING THE PEAK FROM THE INFRASTRUCTURE
From football fields to swimming pools, and from athletics tracks to stadiums, the facilities established all over Turkey have facilitated young people's access to sports, while the sports journey that begins in schools has been elevated to the peak with national projects and international successes. Today, Turkey is not only among the countries that train athletes but also those that have made sports a culture.
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