Since introducing table tennis to 140 thousand students in 355 schools across Turkiye with our Rackets Up project launched in 2018 to make healthy living and sports an indispensable part of children's lives, Hitit has decided to support our national table tennis players Ece Haraç and Özge Yılmaz as they prepare for the 2024 Paris Olympics. With the transportation sponsorship agreement signed between Hitit and the Turkish Table Tennis Federation, Hitit will support the international competitions that our two young female national athletes will participate in throughout 2023 for them to reach the 2024 Paris Olympics.
12.01.2023, Ankara - Hitit continues in its efforts to provide added value in the fields of sports support and gender equality in the same way it adds value to airline and travel technology. In 2018, Hitit launched Rackets Up, Turkiye's first sustainable social responsibility project in table tennis. Rackets Up has provided professional table tennis training to 140,000 students in 355 schools and 370 teachers have become table tennis coaches.
Hitit, which set out with the mission of spreading table tennis to the grassroots, encouraging young people to pursue a healthy lifestyle and sports, continues in its support for this project professionally. With the agreement signed by Nevra Onursal Karaağaç, Hitit's CMO, and Oktay Çimen, President of the Turkish Table Tennis Federation, two of our national table tennis players will receive transportation support from Hitit for their international matches in 2023.
The successful table tennis players, who have many medals in the national and international arena as individuals and doubles, recently won the gold medal in doubles at the Under-21 European Table Tennis Championships held in Romania in September 2022. Ece Haraç and Özge Yılmaz's biggest goal is the 2024 Paris Olympics. Our young female athletes, who continue to collect points to qualify for the Olympics, will fly with Hitit's sponsorship to international competitions throughout 2023.
We want many more Ece's and Özge's to come out of Turkiye
Nevra Onursal Karaağaç, pointed out that their goal is to realize the "Rackets Up" project with the airline companies they work with and to raise the project to a global level:
"We wish to be a sports ambassador in the world through table tennis and make a meaningful contribution to the lives of children and perhaps shape their future. The project, which was launched in September 2018, has reached 370 teachers and 140 thousand children in Çorum, Isparta, Trabzon, Şanlıurfa and Sakarya, despite the pandemic, where education and physical activities were interrupted. Our main goal is of course to contribute to the mental and physical health of children, and encourage more Ece's and Özge's to emerge from these schools"
Stating that while creating the project, they had in the long term planned to commission an international phase, Karaağaç continued, "By supporting two young female table tennis players, we have taken the project to an international level. We will be happy to support Ece and Özge in representing Turkiye at the Olympics. Hitit, founded 29 years ago by two women, is working hard to represent our country in the international arena in the best way possible. I sincerely believe that our two young female athletes will work with the same enthusiasm and excitement to go to the 2024 Paris Olympics and represent our country well."