LAUSANNE – As 2018 comes to a close, we’re reviewing a year of 32 World University Championships, the 3×3 World University League – 2018 Finals and many more events around the globe. All these FISU events were intense, energetic and full of life. Sport can be ecstasy or agony. It can be exhausting or relaxing. It can be fun to watch or highly tense.
But what about those moments that rarely are caught on camera? Those frames of a split-second that bring to light what usually remains unseen. So here are some of the best ones – as FISU Staff picked their favourite fun photos of 2018.
3. Heat fighters. Nuno Gonçalves. Imagine it’s 40 degrees Celsius outside. You’re on a race bike, climbing up a hill somewhere close to Braga in Portugal. The heat is drying your body out. The sweat is running down your face. The sun is shimmering on the asphalt, which covers a steep course with no finish line in sight just yet. It was quite an intense situation that this cyclist from South Africa found himself in, during the road race of the FISU World University Cycling Championship in summer. It is at this exact moment that a dedicated local decided to help, directing a water stream at the student-athlete, giving him the much-needed refresher to make it to the top of the hill.
2. Cheeeeerleaping. Paweł Wojtaszek. No matter the physical effort, always keep smiling – that’s what the coaches told their student-athletes at the FISU World University Cheerleading Championship in October. But it’s easier said than done. Sometimes, let’s say during a joyful leap like this one, all the energy and tension created in a human body during high performance needs to be released. And then it creates a wonderful moment. It’s safe to say that the facial expression of these two Japanese cheerleaders was on display again when they realised they had won the silver medal with their ‘Scream’-like performance.
1. Up is down. WUC Wushu Organising Committee. A photo just like a scene from a Matrix movie. This student-athlete turned the world upside down and stopped the clock at the FISU World University Wushu Championship in August. While – unlike in Matrix – during a Taolu routine, no other people are involved in the performance, Wushu is a versatile sport including just as many spectacular combat and show elements as the famous science-fiction movies. And now please flip your laptop or smartphone back over to normal position. People are already staring at you for holding it the wrong way round.
More rankings are coming up in the next few days until New Year’s Eve. Watch this space.