The International Day of University Sport (IDUS) 2020 was celebrated the world over, on Sunday, 20 September. Now in its fifth edition, this day which is also proclaimed by UNESCO, marks an occasion for the entire university sports community to come together. This year, despite the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, FISU and its member federations ensured the spirit of sport and friendship was celebrated.
Asia
Starting with Asia, as the sun rose on 20 September, we got word that the Chinese Taipei University Sports Federation (CTUSF) organised a 3-day workshop for domestic and foreign students who study in local universities. The workshop included indoor keynote lectures, outdoor sport programmes and group presentations of IDUS Dance Challenge.
The sport programme was an introduction to Stand Up Paddle, which all the students tried for the first time. Although not everyone could manage to stand up on the board, they enjoyed the experience! To mark IDUS, the final session of this workshop was the students’ presentation on the IDUS Dance Challenge.
Each team was required to make a 30-second video in accordance with the dance challenge and here’s one from the SSU Media Volunteers team of CTUSF, who found a unique way to dance together even while alone! See the video they produced.
The Organising Committee of next summer’s FISU World University Games in Chengdu, People’s Republic of China, started a #UniSportsStar series to promote the idea of student-athletes and that fine balance can be achieved between education and sport.
Many of the student-athletes highlighted by FISU in its ‘FISU Athletes’ series, are being featured.
In addition, over at FUSC (Federation of University Sports of China) the Asian University Sports Federation (AUSF) concept of ‘Run Challenge’ was implemented; the purpose of which was to build up confidence among university students to conquer the pandemic and encourage them to go offline to do more sports.
The objective of the ‘Run Challenge’ was for university teams with a maximum of 500 students each, to run a total long distance of 2020 kilometers. Smaller teams of two to four students could also run a short distance of 20.20 kilometres, with all results recorded on a designated Joyrun App.
‘We are together’ is more than just the motto of the AUSF ‘Run Challenge’; it’s a movement across a continent with many countries participating. As part of this challenge, a 20km relay race was held at the National Garden Park in Ulaanbaatar city, Mongolia.
Nice work to all the competitors — and the Mongolian Student Sports Federation for taking a leading role in the event. Sixty participants from 12 universities took part in this run, with more than 200 spectators and cheerleaders joining in to the celebration, as the pandemic is under control in Mongolia.
Europe
Our friends at the European University Sports Association (EUSA) made the most of the beautiful Slovenian countryside to organise a bicycle ride in the stunning locales.
EUSA staff celebrates the fifth International Day of University Sport with a bicycle tour of the Slovenian countryside.
In Ekaterinburg, Russian Federation – the host city of the summer edition of the 2023 FISU World University Games – a traditional sport festival took place on the eve of September 20. The festival was hosted by the Ural Federal University, which became an arena for many sport events for the day: armwrestling, 3×3 basketball, track and field competitions, cheerleading performance and even a tug of war.
A cultural programme was presented with a street dance contest and also football freestyle. There was an educational part of the festival that included seminars and lessons on clean sport principles and the history of Russian sport.
Africa
To mark the occasion of IDUS 2020, the Federation of Africa University Sports (FASU) held a whole host of activities, as did their member countries. From a Social Media Challenge under the ‘We Are Africa’ theme to the concept of student-athletes sharing their ‘Best University Sports Moment’ with each other, from multiple seminars and workshops to even an IDUS-themed cake being cut, the International Day of University Sports was celebrated with much fanfare all over the continent.
IDUS Dance Challenge
Launched on 6 September, with two weeks to go for the International Day of University Sports, FISU brought the university sports community an online challenge that everyone could participate in – from the safety of their homes.
Two talented World University Championship Cheerleading athletes created bespoke routines for this IDUS challenge and all of FISU’s fans, followers and audiences on social media were invited to participate.
After the challenges thrown down by Sabrina Trolio, representing U Sports Canada and Isac Medeiros from CBDU (Brazil), all participants had to choose one of the two routines and put their own spin on it for their entries.
From among some incredible entries received by 12 September (deadline for the virtual tournament), the top eight entries made it to our quarterfinals. All entries can be viewed on our Instagram account. The final is being contested through pubic voting, between Pablo Acuna of Chile and the pair of Catalina and Simon, also from Chile.