i THE NATIONAL YOUTH AND SPORTS POLICY DOCUMENT ...

such as team spirit, solidarity, tolerance and sportsmanship as well to personal development.The lack of physical activity decreases the quality of human life. The World HealthOrganization recommends 30 minutes of physical activity per day for adults and 60 minutesof physical activity per day for children. Within this framework, cooperation should beestablished between the health, education and sports sectors in order to define and implementnecessary strategies to decrease the risks towards both personal and social health throughsports.When the significance of the values acquired by sports in the subjects of knowledge,motivation, basic skills and preparedness for individual enterprises are considered; the timeallocated for sports activities which make contributions in terms of health and education atschools and universities should be increased.Doping, which violates open and fair competition principles, poses a serious dangerfor the sports throughout the world. In the struggle against doping which should be dealt withconsidering the dimensions of legal sanctions, health and preventive activities, efforts for theperception of the trade of illegal doping medicines as drug trade in the European Union areremarkable. Among the measures which should be taken in our country as well, informingand educating young athletes on doping medicines, prescription medicines which couldinclude these matters and health problems such medicines can cause comes first.1. 1. Definition of SportsSports means all kinds of physical activities performed in an organized or unplannedway in order to protect and develop physical and mental health, to establish social relations, tohave fun and to have a good time or to win a competition.1. 2. Why Sports PolicySports have an important role in raising healthy generations, protecting public health,establishing social peace and developing social harmony.Today, all countries attribute great importance to sports and strive to be at theforefront in the sports competitions and international organizations. Organizing great eventsand having important successes in sports are gaining importance in terms of both thecountry’s promotion and its international prestige.Achievements made in the sports field and the increase in facility investments hasmade important contributions to the development of sports in Turkey. However, people’shaving more awareness of sports culture, gaining regular sporting habit and contributing tothe facilities in sports are only possible with a sports policy which will be formed with the49