Yasemin Adar Yiğit, one of the legendary athletes of Turkish sports and who ended her active wrestling career in 2025, made a statement to the AA reporter.
Adar, who is the first Turkish female wrestler to win a medal in the Olympics as well as the European and world championships, continues to serve Turkish sports with a very important duty.
Emphasizing the importance of the Turkey Sports Talent Screening and Sports Orientation Program, which is one of the projects under his responsibility, Adar stated that the program is implemented in 81 provinces and screening tests are carried out on children starting from the third grade of primary school.
Emphasizing that they aim to determine children's aptitude for sports, popularize sports and train future Olympic athletes, Adar said, "This is a very comprehensive screening. We scanned approximately 6 million children from 2018 to 2026, and in this sense, we started to direct them to other branches under the supervision of teachers and coaches by passing them through certain stages, creating preparatory activity cards." he said.
Pointing out that training Olympic athletes requires a long process, Adar said:
"This is a very valuable and important project for us. Very successful athletes emerge from the talent screening. There are athletes who have won medals in Europe, the world, and the international arena. Unfortunately, since it started in 2018, an Olympic athlete cannot be trained in six years and the age groups are very young. In 10 years, we will see our children here going to the Olympics with the potential to win a medal."
"The accuracy of these tests is very high"
Adar stated that in choosing children's branches, scientific evaluations and children's wishes should be taken into account, as well as the expectations of families.
Citing his own family as an example in this regard, Adar emphasized that some parents want to direct their children to a certain branch and said:
"I am a wrestler, my wife is a wrestler. I also have a child. Does my child have to be a wrestler? Not at all. The important thing is that a completely scientific study is being carried out on this skill and the reliability of the tests performed in the screening and the use of artificial intelligence, to direct this athlete to the right branch. These tests are very accurate."
Emphasizing that children should not be forced into a branch that they do not want, Yasemin Adar Yiğit said, "Of course, we need to ask the child about the branch that his child wants to do. No one wants to be forced to do a branch that he does not like, and therefore he may face many problems. The important thing is that he is directed to the branches that he likes and that we have detected in the scans." he said.
"We also started for our disabled children"
Yasemin Adar Yiğit, Deputy General Manager of Sports Services, stated that they have also taken steps to include disabled children in sports during talent screening studies.
Stating that they aim to identify the talents of disabled children and direct them to paralympic branches, Adar said:
"We come face to face with our disabled children while doing the screening. I would like to give a little good news about this. We have started to do this talent screening for our disabled children as well. We are working very devotedly to direct disabled individuals to sports and to scan their talents. We will create a program for this, too. I would like to give the good news about that, too."
"The administrative part is more difficult"
Reminding that she started to work as Deputy General Manager of Sports Services after ending her active wrestling career in 2025, Yasemin Adar Yiğit said that she used the experiences she gained in sports to contribute to the development of new athletes.
Stating that management requires taking responsibility in different branches, Adar said, "The managerial part is more difficult. Because when I was an athlete, I was in complete control of the job. I have been taking on this task for a year and there are moments when I find it very difficult. But since it is a discipline that I came from as an athlete, I do it with pleasure. Helping my fellow athletes and serving sports is a separate duty for me." he said.
Stating that he wants to contribute to overcoming the obstacles faced by female athletes, Adar stated that successful athletes play a role in changing prejudices in society and said, "When a role model appears, our society sees this and directs our other female athletes to sports and ensures that they are successful at the same time. I will try to support our female athletes as much as I can and help them overcome the obstacles." He concluded his words by saying.
