MEASUREMENT OF EMPATHY LEVELS OF NATIONAL ATHLETES
This study intended to measure the empathy levels of National Athletes. The screening model was used in the study. The study was conducted with 150 athletes in total in the National Athletics Team Camp, aged 21 and 23, 69 female and 81 male. The Empathy Quotient developed by Baron-Cohen and Wheelwright (2004) and validated and verified by Bora and Baysan (2009) was used as the data collection tool. The data was analyzed with SPSS 22 and the confidence level was 95%. According to the Shapiro-Wilk normality analysis, while the Cognitive Empathy scores of the participants had normal distribution (p>0,05); the Empathic Interest-Sympathy, Emotional Reactivity, Social Skills and Empathy Levels did not demonstrate normal distribution (p<0,05). Differences in Cognitive Empathy scores by age and gender were analyzed by the parametric test method, independent samples t-test, and differences in Empathic Interest-Sympathy, Emotional Reactivity, Social Skills and Empathy Levels by age and gender were analyzed by the non-parametric test method, Mann Whitney U. According to the study results, there is no statistically significant difference by gender ((p>0,05). Considering age, there is no statistically significant difference between the participants aged 21 and 23 in terms of Cognitive Empathy, Empathic Interest-Sympathy, Emotional Reactivity, Empathy Level (p>0,05). There is statistically significant difference by Social Skills between the participants aged 21 and 23 (p<0,05). While the average score for age 21 is 68,86, it is 86,33 for age 23. Accordingly, Social Skills are higher in the participants aged 23.

Keywords
Athletics, Cognitive empathy, Empathy, Social skills.