Sambo entered the World University Championships programme in 2016 after its first appearance as a FISU event at the 2013 Summer Universiade in Kazan. The first World University Sambo Championship was held in 2016 in Larnaca, Cyprus. 
The next edition of the World University Sambo Championship took place in Novi Sad, Serbia in 2018. In 2022 Sambo was part of the FISU University World Cup Combat Sports in Samsun (TUR). Combat Sports (with Sambo as a discipline) now return to a FISU World University Championship format.

The History of Sambo in FISU

Sambo is a martial art and combat sport developed by the Soviet Red Army in the early 1920s to improve hand-to-hand fighting abilities. Incorporating judo and jujitsu, but also incorporating wrestling moves, sambo derives from a Russian acronym, which translates literally to 'self defense without weapons'. Both men and women compete by weight category in this gender-equal sport.

With its Russian roots, it makes sense that Sambo entered the FISU event programme at the 2013 Summer Universiade in Kazan as a non-compulsory sport. The first World University Sambo Championship was held in 2016 in Larnaca, Cyprus. 
The next edition of the World University Sambo Championship will take place in Novi Sad, Serbia in 2018.