The International Day of University Sport 2021 is six months away and already preparations have started among FISU’s national and continental member associations for 20 September.
Last year, despite the pandemic situation, the fifth consecutive International Day of University Sport (IDUS) was celebrated around the world with restraint and respect for health and safety rules. Plans for this year are being made keeping the same framework in mind.
In 2020, 135 member federations marked the day with various activities, many of them virtual. In Africa, for example, from Somalia to Kenya and right up to the tip of South Africa, celebrations were held with various exercise and sport related videos and dance activities.
The African University Sports Federation (FASU) in fact used the whole month of September 2020 for thecelebration of university sports. The IDUS African Media Challenge was a big hit and attracted over 150 participants from around the continent. The challenges included a photo contest, a lockdown fitness challenge and a TikTok video challenge.
“We at the FASU mainly ran a continental social media campaign, since many institutions were closed due to COVID-19. It has become hard for many universities to organise physical activities,” said Hannington Musoke FASU Media Committee member.
In other parts of the world, where lockdown conditions had been lifted, more onsite events were possible. The Asian University Sports Federation (AUSF) organised a Run Challenge through September 2020, where thousands of participants from nine AUSF member federations participated under a ‘We Are Together’ slogan.
IDUS 2020 celebrations at the Chinese Taipei University Sports Federation (CTUSF)The Chinese Taipei University Sports Federation (CTUSF) managed to hold multiple events to promote this meaningful day among local communities and university students.
“We view the International Day of University Sport as a big festival,” said Ching Yu Tseng, the Secretary General of CTUSF. “To celebrate a festival, it cannot be just one single event. So, starting from the end of August onwards, we designed a series of events for university teachers and students alike, to join and to get to know FISU and IDUS better.”
Over in Europe, for the first time ever, the German University Sports Federation (adh) together with its health care partner die Techniker hosted ‘adh-Hochschullauf digital’ to celebrate the IDUS. 473 students, university staff and alumni from 70 adh member universities competed in the inaugural event, with everyone walking or running as many kilometres as possible within a maximum of one hour.
Jörg Förster, chairman of the adh board, said: “At this first nationwide event and facing restrictions imposed by the pandemic, 473 participants were a good basis for further developing this format.”
Throughout the month of September 2020, FISU America carried out many IDUS-related activities. From 14 September to 14 October, many educational, sporting and promotional events took place online, putting together a great celebration of #LetsIDUS.
Participating in the FISU America initiative, each NUSF also competed for the ‘most active federation on the continent’ award – which turned out to be great motivation. After a month of events and many accumulated points, CBDU Brazil, became the ‘Most Active Federation’ of the continent!
The most active countries around the world were the Russian Federation, Brazil and Argentina with over 10’000 participants each and more than 100 events.
FISU itself ran the global ‘IDUS Dance Challenge’ on its social media channels, which was won by Pablo Acuna from the Universidad de Santiago de Chile. The IDUS Dance Challenge was conducted over two weeks, starting 6 September, running up to the International Day of University Sport on 20 September.
“I was very happy to represent my team and the University of Santiago in this activity for sport, since it is what I am passionate about,” said a delighted Pablo to FISU, after winning the challenge.
Nearly 4,000 votes were cast on FISU’s Instagram stories, to help decide the winner of the challenge. The ‘virtual tournament’ was launched with two amazing World University Championship cheerleading athletes who created bespoke routines for the challenge which participants then had to emulate, putting their own spin on it.
Watch this space to find out what’s in store for 2021!