The Greek delegation at Kazan 2013 Summer Universiade“It is important for each student to recognise his or her limits and take the risk of setting the bar high,” said Vasileiou Nikos, the President of Hellenic Committee for University Sports (HCUS) to FISU Student Ambassador Elina Papavasiliou. Nikos is also the FISU Technical Committee Chair (TCC) for Water Polo. “A student-athlete is determined by his discipline and relentless effort to achieve the impossible.”
The history of the HCUS began when it was established by a ministerial decision in 1990. Nikos pointed out that this committee belongs to the Ministry of Education and before 1990 there was an informal committee among the universities of Greece. Later, a council was established, to organise university tournaments and many other competitions.
Today, HCUS includes the whole range of 29 Greek universities with 10,000 active students. Furthermore, the HCUS is responsible for informing the universities about various events such as Panhellenic Championships, web conferences, seminars about nutrition and physical activity in open areas, educational seminars, and more.
The goals of the federation are divided into short-term and long-term. The purpose of the short-term goals is the general development of university sports by creating new legislation where private colleges will have the opportunity to participate in HCUS events. The long-term goals meanwhile are about increasing student participation in HCUS events. Last year 10,000 students participated in these events and Nikos’ goal is to increase the number of participants so that bigger events and tournaments are accomplished in the future.
“In 2022, HCUS will undertake the organisation of the World Championship in Cheerleading in Heraklion, Crete, where it will be held for the first time in our country,” added Nikos with excitement. “There will also be an effort to claim more world or pan-European championships and of course a worthy representation of our national university athletes team at the FISU World University Games in Chengdu in 2021.”
At every HCUS event, both genders are included. Beyond that, “It is the choice of each university, how many boys and girls will participate, although in general, girls participate less in HCUS events than boys. HCUS is working towards increasing the proportion of girls in college sports. To achieve this goal we suggested to add to the programmes of aerobics and yoga as more females are likely to attend to these sports.”
The priority right now, for Nikos is to spread awareness about the federation among the students in order to increase the number of participation. To achieve this goal, HCUS tries to organise various events. “As the percentage of students increases, we hope that there will be more support from universities,” he added.
Finally, Nikos said with pride, “What makes the HCUS federation special is its uniqueness to include potentially all sports. It has the ability to organise various sporting events, even those that are not as common or widespread such as cheerleading. The HCUS has the ability to undertake all kinds of sports, from summer to winter sports. Because of this uniqueness, our federation is quite interesting and attractive.”
In conclusion, it is time to start a new era in Greek university sports. As students, we should support our federation by engaging actively at the various events that are held on. Our ambitions and goals are set up and if all of us take into consideration the meaning of university sports, we will be able to achieve them.