The Expansion of University Sport

Ever since this important period, the Universiades continue to attract more and more participants. We went from a total of 1,407 participants in Turin, Italy in 1959 to a total of 6,675 in Beijing, China in 2001 from more than 165 countries and 6,643 from 174 countries in Daegu, Korea in 2003. The highest number of participants was registered at the 2005 Summer Universiade of Izmir, Turkey, i.e. 7,805.

The Winter Universiades experienced the same success. In fact, our statistics show that 98 athletes participated in 1958 at the Universiade in Zell-Am-See, Austria while a record of 2,223 participants from 50 countries came to the Winter Universiade in Innsbruck, Austria in 2005.

The expansion of university sport around the world created a new need for meetings and competitions in order to complete the Universiade program. Thus, FISU has also supervised the World University Championships since the early sixties.

For thirty-eight years, 148 of these Championships have been organised, covering a large range of events (almost always different from the Universiade sports) and gathering nearly 25,500 participants from 135 different countries. These championships, which take place on even years and which have had increasing success as the years go on, guarantee continuity in the competitions programme. They also allow a large number of students and university sports leaders to unite on occasions other than at Universiades. As for 2000, 20 World University Championships, with 3,623 participants, were held each in a different place for a different sport. In 2002, 24 World University Championships were held attracting 4,228 participants from 83 countries. In 2004, 26 championships were staged bringing together 4,845 participants. Currently, 28 World University Championships are already attributed for 2006 and 10 for 2008.

The 2007 and 2009 editions of the Summer Universiade have been attributed respectively to the cities of Bangkok (Thailand) and Belgrade (Serbia & Montenegro). The 2007 edition of the Winter Universiade has been attributed to CUSI, the national university sports organisation of Italy, who will organise it in Torino, the birthplace of the Universiade. The 2009 Winter Universiade will be held in Harbin (China).

FISU supports these competitions which give student-athletes the opportunity to come together from all around the world in a spirit of understanding and peace so that they can aim towards obtaining results at a high technical level.