Talent scouting is discovering the athletes of the future in Yalova.

The Yalova Provincial Directorate of Youth and Sports continues to discover young talents with the talent screening project of the Ministry of Youth and Sports. The project, implemented across Turkey, aims to identify children who are inclined towards sports and direct them to the appropriate branches. Yalova Youth and Sports Provincial Director Salih Kılıç stated that all 3rd-grade students in schools in Yalova have undergone this screening and that talented students have been directed to suitable sports branches. Kılıç noted that two cyclist athletes were discovered through this screening and that they are candidates for the 2028 Olympic Games, saying, “The Ministry of Youth and Sports has a talent screening project. We are screening all 3rd graders in every school in Yalova in terms of sports talent. It is a very important project of the Ministry of Youth and Sports. No one will say, ‘I want to do sports, but I couldn’t reach anyone, and no one reached out to me.’ Because we have screened every student in the 3rd grade in Yalova. We did it last year and the year before. We go to the districts and do it there. We gather all the schools in the provincial center at the 90th Year Sports Hall or another sports hall, and we conduct these talent screenings under the guidance of our coaches. We screen everyone and direct students to the sports in which they are talented based on the results of the screening. We have a few athletes in our province related to this. Two of our cyclist athletes are candidates for the 2028 Olympic Games. They return with medals from every competition. We are starting to see the results. The students who are currently successful in cycling were discovered through the talent screening and directed to this sport, and they are now in the national team. They have achievements in Turkey and Europe.”

4,000 Students Screened

Musa Aslan, the Branch Manager of Sports Services, stated that thousands of students are screened every year, saying, “From this screening, 15-20% of the 4,000 children are reported to our provincial directorate as being inclined towards sports. We have one-on-one meetings with the parents of these students and provide basic training for a year. At the end of this basic training, we continue with comprehensive screenings and take our measurements. At the end of this year, we rank the branches from the most suitable to the least suitable for our friends and hold a meeting with the parents. We direct them to existing clubs in the province and our own coaches, specializing them. After a 2 to 4-year working period, the children continue their careers in the branches where they will be successful. We also have athletes for whom we provide transport facilities. We support them in this regard. This year, we screened approximately 3,800 students. We were informed that 623 of our children are suitable for sports. Of these, 323 are from the center, and 300 are from our districts. In a coordinated manner, we called parents in 5 of our districts. We held our meeting, provided information about the upcoming process, and we will train these children in basic training for a year. At the end of the year, we will evaluate them based on the tests and measurements we conducted to determine which branch they are inclined towards, and we will discuss the data and direct them to specific branches one by one.”

The Road to the Olympics Passes Through Yalova

Yalova added another success to its national and international achievements in sports. Celebrating the success of national wrestler Buse Tosun Çavuşoğlu, who won a bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, Provincial Director Salih Kılıç wished success to weightlifter Uğur Yumuk, who will represent Yalova at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. Kılıç stated, “As the provincial sports directorate, we strive to write great stories in a small city. Thank God, we have accomplished many of the things we wanted to do so far. The only things we couldn’t do were due to space and facility issues. We have done everything we wanted, dreamed of, and planned. The people of Yalova are very interested in sports. Citizens take their children by the hand and bring them to us. This is very important. You rarely see this in other provinces. Yalova has this special aspect. We do not turn away anyone who comes to us. We engage, guide, and work together, and as a result, success comes. We are one of Turkey’s smaller provinces, but we have a bronze medal and our friend Uğur Yumuk will represent our province and our country in the Paralympic Games in weightlifting. This is a great source of pride for Yalova. It has been granted to return to the Olympics with two athletes and one medal. We are happy and proud.”