The investigation of the orienting sportsman's dependence on nature

Purpose: The aim of study is to examine the commitment of orienteering athletes to nature. Materials and Methods: Descriptive design, one of the mixed research models, was used as the research model. The research was started with quantitative data analysis and ended with qualitative data analysis. In the quantitative study, the sample of the study consisted of 415 athletes. In the quantitative research, ''Relation with nature scale'', developed by Nisbet and colleagues in 2009 and adapted to Turkish by Çakır and colleaques in 2015, was used as data collection tool. 19 athletes participated in the qualitative research.. In the qualitative research, semi – structured interview form was used as data collection tool. Findings: In the quantitative part of the study, ıt was seen that the commitment of athletes to nature had positive level. Significant differencies on their commitment to nature was also found among athletes according to their ages, their sport years, their status of being national athelete and monthly average income of their families. In the qualitative part of the study, the commitment of orienteering atheletes to nature has emerged as three themes like nature awareness, general thoughts about orienteering and nature – orienteering relations. Conclusion: It has been concluded that the commitment of orienteering athletes to nature is relatively high, competitions are conducive to spending time in nature, a social environment esteemed very highly by athletes is formed during competitions and activities, this social environment increases the passions and commitments of atheletes to nature and comprises an significant learning environment. Key Words: Orienteering, Outdoor Sports, Nature, Commitment to Nature