Torino 2025 FISU World University Games launches Ambassador Programme

One month from today the Lake Placid 2023 FISU World University Games will get underway, but two years following, Torino will again play host as the FISU Games Winter will be hosted there 13-23 January 2025.

In the build up to 2025, the Torino 2025 Organising Committee on Sunday 11 December launched its Ambassadors Programme. The announcement was connected to the conclusion of the International Skating Union (ISU) Grand Prix Final of Figure Skating, held in Torino at Palavela, which will be figure skating’s venue in 2025.

The first ambassador introduced was Raffaele Zich (picture), who hours later was the first skater on the ice at the closing gala for the Grand Prix Final. Zich was born in Vietnam in 2006 and was taken in by two Torino engineers, mother Paola and father Riccardo, both of whom teach in the city. Currently 16 years of age, Zich will be of university age by the time the Torino 2025 FISU Games come around and will look to compete in his hometown.

“I am honoured to be part of this project and to be Ambassador of the 2025 Games. Torino is my city, where I grew up as an athlete and where I am growing as a student. My parents and grandfather are university professors and they passed on to me the value of study, but also the passion and dedication for sports”, said the talented skater coached by Edoardo De Bernardis and Renata Lazzaroni.

The artistic duo of Irma Caldara and Riccardo Maglio (picture) have also been named ambassadors. The tandem, originally from Milan, has moved to Turin since September to be tutored by CUS Torino coach Cristiana Di Natale. A couple on and off the ice, Caldara is studying sociology at Bicocca University in Milan, while Maglio is a set to continue his studies after graduating.

“We are so happy to be able to tell the world about this great event for Italy and for Turin”, Maglio says. Caldara agrees stating, “In Turin we now feel at home because we have been training here since this fall. It was great to be acclaimed by the Italian public at the Grand Prix closing gala”.

The Ambassador Programme is another step in the path to 2025 and Alessandro Ciro Sciretti, President of the Torino 2025 FISU Games and of Edisu Piemonte, commented about the lead up. “We are just over two years away from our event, but we have already set out on a path dense with major sporting events. We want to make our territory even more attractive, and the [FISU World University Games] aims to leave a tangible physical and structural legacy. This is an opportunity for growth for territory and the university and sports system.”

Written by Doug McLean
(with files from Torino 2025 FISU World University Games Organising Committee)