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Home News 37th FISU General Assembly – Day 2

37th FISU General Assembly – Day 2

FISU 30 October 2021

FISU Acting President Leonz Eder and FISU Secretary General-CEO Eric SaintrondDay two of the 37th FISU General Assembly has concluded. National University Sports Federation (NUSF) delegates, members of the FISU Executive Committee, future hosts, and FISU staff received updates on FISU’s Global Strategy and upcoming FISU World University Games, while also recognising FISU Award winners. This followed day one where updates were heard from FISU Acting President Leonz Eder, and FISU Secretary General-CEO Eric Saintrond.

 

FISU Global Strategy

 

FISU Director General Paulo Ferreira delivered the update on FISU’s Global Strategy. This process launched in 2017 after approval at the FISU General Assembly hosted in Lausanne. It involved input from NUSFs, students, over 150 FISU Family members, and other core stakeholders with plans across all aspects of the university sports movement.

 

Of course, since early 2020, this process has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. With travel suspended and FISU staff working from home due to the office closure, this led to the cancellation or postponement of visits and meetings about the global strategy. At the same time, FISU’s shift in focus to managing pandemic related issues led to a rescheduling of the strategy review. Despite the challenges, Ferreira highlighted that the process has progressed across the eight focus areas and 166 action plans. 73% of the action plans are active which is made up of 39% completed and 34% that are on-going.

 

Another development in the process, the Director General noted, has been the merger of some and adjustment of other focus areas. Sport events, dual career building, cooperation with international organisations, development, and promoting university sport remain unchanged. Culture and education through sport have merged to become one focus, governance is added to the area of resources, and legacy and sustainability has been added as its own focus.

 

Ferreira concluded by saying that an updated version of the FISU Global Strategy will be sent out in coming weeks which will outline the direction of the global university sports movement. Three more updates are to be presented prior to the conclusion of this strategic cycle, and at that time, in 2026-2027, is when the new planning process would commence.

 

FISU Awards

 

FISU Education and Development team working behind the scenes of the 37th FISU General AssemblyNext on the agenda was the presentation of FISU Awards. First was Kairus Ulp (EST) being named an Emeritus Honorary Member. Ulp served five terms on the FISU Executive Committee between 1999 and 2019, including eight years as the Chair of the Supervision Committee for Winter Universiade. Also named an Emeritus Honorary Member was Chen Tai-Cheng (TPE) who, as did Ulp, served five terms on the FISU Executive Committee. During his tenure, his home country hosted the 2017 Summer Universiade in Taipei.

 

Named Honorary Members were Malumbete Ralethe (RSA) and Roger Roth (SUI). Ralethe served four terms as a FISU Executive Committee member and is also the former president of the Federation of Africa University Sports (FASU). Ralethe said: “[I am] very pleased to receive this honour. Happy to see all the members of the FISU Family.” Since 2003, Roth has been the Winter Universiade CTI Chair leading technical delivery of multiple Universiades. His final Winter Universiade will take place in Lucerne in his home country of Switzerland. He spoke to the FISU General Assembly delegates saying: “[I am] overwhelmed and feel very honoured. Thank you for this great honour.”

 

The FISU Gender Equality Awards were next and recognise projects or individuals who have made significant efforts to advance and achieve gender equality within University Sport in their country, continent or internationally. Nine nominees were received for the 2021 FISU Gender Equality Project Award with the Football Association (FA) University Women’s Leadership Programme in Great Britain named the winner. The programme was delivered in 2019 and identified a gap in women’s talent development pathway and aims to play a major role in increasing the quantity and quality of female talent in the leadership pipeline to support the FA.

 

For the 2021 FISU Gender Equality Champion Award, six nominations were received. This year’s winner was Adhikari Arachchige Lakshika Madhushani of Sri Lanka. She is a former national volleyball player and former captain of University of Kelaniya Volleyball team. She is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sport Sciences and Physical Education in Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka and sits as the Voluntary Key Coordinator at the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka.

 

Lucerne and Chengdu Updates

 

To conclude day two, updates were provided from the organising committees of the Lucerne 2021 Winter Universiade and the Chengdu 2021 FISU World University Games.

 

Managing Director for Lucerne 2021 Winter Universiade Urs Hunkeler highlighted preparations leading up to the opening ceremony on 11th December. This includes the unique torch relay, structured around water, which started 20th September.

 

Hunkeler noted the challenges of the postponement of the Winter Universiade and thanked FISU and Swiss University Sport for helping find solutions to deliver the event in December. However, he indicated that hosting in December brings with it less certain snow conditions which forced the organising committee to add the venue of St. Moritz for alpine skiing. Along with St. Moritz, the Lucerne 2021 Winter Universiade will exclusively use eight existing sport facilities to host the ten sports. As of 30th October, initial entries reached 1,752 athletes from 57 nations registered with 42 days to go.

 

 

Wang Guangliang provided the update for the Chengdu 2021 FISU World University Games and commenced by speaking of the accelerated construction of venues. This comprised 13 new venues and 36 upgraded ones that were completed in April. Test events were held from April to June in all 18 sports to assess the venues and improve planning in areas such as security and epidemic prevention and control. In addition, all 13 supporting infrastructure projects have been put into operation and are open to traffic.

 

Preparations have been helped by a five member observer group that went to the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games to study competition organisation, delegation reception, epidemic prevention, and transportation. The organising committee is also learning from the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Games to be held in Beijing in early 2022 and a delegation plans to attend the Lucerne 2021 Winter Universiade.

 

The next steps that Wang noted include final preparations for virtually-held Heads of Delegation Meeting in February and the close study of Beijing 2022 as well as the related national epidemic prevention policies. Additionally, Wang highlighted how 850,000 volunteers have already registered and plans for a series of events at key milestones, such as 200 and 100 days until the opening ceremonies, to increase visibility for Chengdu.

 

 

Updates on future FISU World University Championships, FISU University World Cups, and FISU World University Games highlight the agenda of day three of the 37th FISU General Assembly and will take place Sunday, 31st October at 12:00 CET.

 

 

Article written by Doug McLean