FISU America is one of the biggest Member Associations of the International University Sports Federation (FISU). It is divided into three big groups; South America, which has twelve countries, Central America, made up of twenty countries and North America, with three countries. It is a big continent and therefore a large federation, with a lot of different nationalities, cultures and even languages – although the two most commonly spoken are English and Spanish.
Opening ceremony of the FISU America Games
No wonder then, that managing the affairs of such a large and diverse federation is not an easy task, especially in terms of being fair to all and doing what is best for everyone. To understand how FISU America functions and what are the future plans, FVLA participant Vitória Teixeira Cabral spoke to FISU America President Alim Maluf Neto.
FISU America was founded in 2007, in Brazil, under the name of ‘Pan American University Sports Organization’ or ODUPA, with Mr. Julio Jakob from Uruguay as its first President. According to Neto, there were many important people who worked towards the consolidation of this federation, like current FISU Vice President Luciano Cabral, FECUNDE (Costa Rican National University Sports Federation) Vice President Rosaura Mendez, Jorge Solis, and former FISU President George Killian.
FISU America President Alim Maluf NetoEven though FISU America is a relatively young federation, it has already achieved many goals. Alim Maluf Neto spoke of when he first won the election in 2016 and listed two major goals they had.
“The first goal was the realisation of the first FISU America Games – a dream of all those who worked with university sports in our continent. In 2018 we managed to make that dream come true as we were able to hold the competition in the city of São Paulo,” said Neto.
“We had participation of 12 countries and 1,500 athletes, registered in 10 sports. The second goal was to unify the entity that at that time had some turbulent equations among its affiliates. Hopefully, this objective was achieved too, and today the entity is properly united and demonstrates that to the entire university sports community.”
Talking about the last year and the upcoming years, the FISU America President said that the most successful events were the FISU America 3×3, held in Macéio – Brazil, hosted by the Brazilian Confederation of Sports University (CBDU); and also the FISU America Futsal, held in Missiones – Argentina, hosted by the Argentinian Federation of Sports University (FeDUA). He said they were fantastic events.
“Our 2019 events were fabulous due to the strategic dialogue in Colombia at the Javarian university and the participation of representatives from 15 countries, three continental university federations, deans of Colombian universities and more than 200 students,” said Neto. “For the next years, the goal is to consolidate the events of FISU America in a structured calendar and mainly to strengthen the FISU America Games.”
The FISU America eSports tournament Most recently, the innovative idea of holding an eSports tournament emerged from the need to propose new activities to university student-athletes all over the Americas, during the COVID-19 lockdown.
About this, Alim Maluf Neto said, “We are happy with what we achieved in this tournament. In a very short time, we had 36 athletes from 15 countries across the continent participating. And it was the first international competition of eSports for university students.”
“We transformed a time of crisis into opportunity for the development of university sports,” he continued. “We have become pioneers of the university eSports. This is just the beginning for us, we will keep looking for new challenges, cope with this situation in the best way and use it as learning.”
Last but not least, Neto was asked what makes FISU America special.
“FISU America is special for being a vector of unity among student athletes from the Americas and also for uniting sports practice with the academic environment through competitions and discussion forums!”
Hopefully everyone in the university sports community in America has something to look forward to.
By: Vitória Teixeira Cabral