Zumba Workshop
FISU President, Claude-Louis Gallien welcoming the participantsLAUSANNE – Today, Saturday, 20 September, FISU organized the first edition of the International Festival of University Sport “Lausanne in Motion” at the Place de la Navigation in Lausanne, Switzerland. The event was a genuine success.
“Lausanne in Motion” was a free event and open to all. It was a meeting between the students and the citizens of Lausanne. A way to ‘move’ citizens and also and take sports outside the university campus. Finally, it was also an opportunity to thank the city of Lausanne for its hospitality as the seat of the FISU has been there since 2011.
FISU President Claude-Louis Gallien had wanted to create an event organized by academics for academics and also for the general public. The purpose of the International University Sports Festival is therefore to discover sports as well as FISU’s university sport values in the city of Lausanne and to ‘move’ the sport festival participants via an introduction to new sports. And from this point of view we can say that it was a total success. Workshops with the different sports were all taken over by young and old who wanted to learn about these new disciplines. There was indeed a warm atmosphere on the Place de la Navigation. Luckily, the weather was on FISU’s side as well with a glorious sunshine throughout the day.
From left to right: Georges André Carrel, OC President, Marc vuilleumier, State Counselor and Sports Director to the Lausanne Municipality, Patrice Iseli, Director of the Sports Services in Lausanne
Sports animated by academic sport professionals took place throughout the day. At the same time, other activities with a focus on health and new technology sports did not fail to attract the public’s attention as well.
FISU President Claude-Louis Gallien was especially proud of the success of this event and did not fail to thank all the partners including the University of Lausanne, ‘natural’ festival partner but the municipality also brought its enthusiasm and the essential logistical support.
T-Bow initiation
Dominique Arlettaz, Rector of the University of Lausanne, natural partner of this festivalThis first is definitely the start of a new concept within the framework of the “International University Sports Day”. This day will be (if, UNESCO agrees to place it on its calendar) a day organised every year for all students and citizens wishing to participate in physical activities. The International University Sports Day then will be exported rapidly on campuses around the world.
The day ended with music concerts featuring bands and DJs: “Y a le feu au lac” (The lake is on fire). Needless to say, again there was a warm atmosphere. So, see you next year for the second edition.
Partners of the event were the city of Lausanne, Canton de Vaud, the Sports Departments of UNIL and EPFL, UNIL, EPFL, the Swiss Federation of University Sport, Tissot, Rivella Harmony Denges, Henniez, TL, FNAC, Eurosport, La Tele, LFM and Lausanne Cities.
(Y. Dufour, Editor)