TikTok and the Turkish National Olympic Committee (TMOK) are bringing sports to the digital world as part of their long-term partnership. This strategic partnership, which will continue until the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, aims to popularize less visible sports in Turkey, especially among young people, and to reach a wider audience through digital content. At a press conference held at the Olympic House, TMOK President Ahmet Gülüm, TMOK Board Member Birsel Vardarlı Demirmen, TikTok Turkey, Central and South Asia Global Business Solutions Leader Barış Aldanmaz, and TikTok Turkey, Eastern Europe and Central Asia Operations Leader Melis Çağlar explained the details of this important partnership.
Thanks to this partnership, all Olympic sports will now be much more visible on TikTok. Users from around the world will be able to better understand, follow, and support athletes in a wide range of sports, from archery and sailing to swimming and gymnastics, through creative content and live broadcasts. The goal is to make sports more visible, more inclusive, and more inspiring, while also supporting our athletes! This strategic partnership not only encourages young people to participate in sports; it also aims to contribute to Turkey’s sports tourism potential.
Thanks to TikTok’s global reach and content power, sporting events hosted by Turkey are becoming more visible worldwide. As the first phase of this partnership, the 37th Bosphorus Cross-Continental Swimming Race, organized by the Turkish Olympic Committee (TMOK) on August 24th, will be broadcast live on @trtsporyildiz. Those who wish can also watch the same broadcast on @tiktoklive_tr. Through all broadcasts and posts on race day, TikTok users will be able to share the excitement of the race and witness the unique beauty of the Bosphorus.
Ahmet Gülüm, President of the Turkish National Olympic Committee, commented on this meaningful partnership: “Our most important mission is to realize this potential through sports. We aim to ensure that the Olympic philosophy, determination, team spirit, and fair play find a place in the lives of young people.
This agreement will be a four-year partnership and will last until 2029, including the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games. During this period, we will further introduce Olympic sports and our athletes to Turkish society. The content we produce to foster our greatest dream: developing a sports culture, will reach young people and all segments of society. TikTok will be one of the most important stakeholders in this visionary project.”
Gülüm emphasized that their collaboration with TikTok isn’t just about quantity, but also focuses on making inspiring stories visible. She said, “The Winter Olympic Games will be held in Milano Cortina in February 2026. We have a team that could qualify for the Winter Olympic Games through a qualifying competition in December. This team is our national women’s curling team, comprised of young girls from Erzurum. They’re on their way to global success. If they make it to Milan, it will be a tremendous achievement, and there’s a fantastic story behind it.
The efforts of Kenan Şebin, President of the Curling Federation in Erzurum, and the girls’ efforts have combined to form a formidable team. Our goal is to work on communication for the national curling team after the Bosphorus Swimming Race and until the qualifying tournament in Canada. Here, we will tell all of Turkey about the struggles of our young girls and how they can achieve global success, starting from Erzurum. This is invaluable content. It’s more valuable than the number of people we reach.”
Barış Aldanmaz, TikTok’s Global Business Solutions Leader for Turkey, Central and South Asia, emphasized that this collaboration is more than just content planning, adding, “This journey we’re on with the Turkish National Olympic Committee is a testament to TikTok’s respect for sports culture in Turkey and its passion for bringing this culture to a wider audience. At TikTok, we don’t just produce content. We also prioritize providing digital support for sports and athletes by making them visible. Today, we have over 10,000 brands on our platform. We aim to create an ecosystem that can sponsor athletes of all levels. We believe this is part of a vision that will enable sustainable success and a massive transformation of sports.”
Birsel Vardarlı Demirmen said: “As an athlete, what I know best is that inspiration often stems from a story, an image, or a small example. Thanks to this collaboration, our youth will see the perseverance and hard-working journeys of Olympic athletes in a language much more relatable to their own. It is invaluable that sports can reach and motivate young people not only on the field but also in the digital world. I believe this collaboration between TMOK and TikTok will be a powerful bridge that will transmit the values of sports to new generations.”
Melis Çağlar, TikTok Turkey, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia Operations Leader, also began her speech by discussing the sports content on TikTok.He began by explaining that their work has attracted significant attention both globally and in Turkey. “Users don’t just follow; they also get inspired, create content, learn, and experience. For Generation Z in particular, TikTok is a digital discovery space where they discover new interests, express themselves, and even determine their career paths. Just think, with this collaboration, maybe we’ll see a young person selected for the national team years later in a sport they watched and developed an interest in on TikTok. Why not? This has been my dream since day one!” Çağlar said, emphasizing that more than 1.9 million posts were shared on TikTok during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, which were followed worldwide, and that these content were viewed a total of 49 billion times.
The Paralympics account reached 4.7 million followers on TikTok
TikTok has proven itself to be the new digital destination for sports with its strong presence at globally significant events like the Paralympics and EURO 2024. During the Paralympic Games, the @paralympics account reached 4.7 million followers and 120 million views. Furthermore, contributions from platform users raised $500,000 for the International Paralympic Committee’s sports development programs.
On TikTok, 89 percent of users are interested in sports, and one-third drive their content creation with national or cultural affiliations. Today, nearly 60 million people share football-themed content, and 19 of the 25 most-followed sports clubs globally are among the most content-producing publishers on TikTok.
In collaboration with the Turkish National Olympic Committee, TikTok will continue to bring the universal language of sport to the energy of the digital world.
