Winter Uni Games

The World University Games, or Universiade (Uni for short), is an international sporting event for university students that is organized by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The Universiade is staged every two years in both the winter and summer. The first Summer Universiade was held in 1959 in Turin, Italy, while the first Winter Universiade took place a year later in Chamonix, France.

  1. History

    • The concept of a global sporting event for university-based athletes originated in 1923, with the World Student Games held for the first time in Paris, France. However, it was not until five years later that the first winter competition took place. The first Winter International University Games were staged in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy and were held bi-annually until the outbreak of World War II in 1939. The games returned in 1951 in Bad Gastein, Austria under the title of the First Winter International University Sport Week. The competition was staged every two years until 1959, before being replaced by the Universiade in 1960.

    Events

    • The 1960 Winter Universiade featured 13 events across five sports -- alpine skiing, Nordic skiing, Nordic combined, ski jumping and figure skating. Ice hockey was added to the competition program in 1962, while speed skating made its debut six years later in Innsbruck. Since then, biathlon, curling, freestyle skiing, snowboarding and short track speed skating have all been added to the Universiade program.

    Host Cities

    • As of 2011, the Winter Universiade has been staged in 15 different countries. Italy has hosted the event on five occasions, with Sestriere, Livigno, Belluno, Tarvisio and Turin all serving as host cities. Czechoslovakia, as it was known before being split into two separate countries in 1993, staged the competition three times, with Spindleruv Mlyn acting as the host city in both 1964 and 1978, and Strbske Pleso the venue for the 1987 Universiade. Other cities to have hosted the games on more than occasion include Innsbruck, Austria (1968 and 2005); Jaca, Spain (1981 and 1995); and the Bulgarian capital city, Sofia (1983 and 1989). The Universiade has also been held in France, Switzerland, Finland, USA, Japan, Poland, South Korea, Slovakia, China and Turkey. The 2013 event is scheduled to take place in Maribor, Slovenia.

    Participants

    • The 1960 Winter Universiade featured 145 athletes from 16 nations. The number of participants more than doubled at the 1962 Games in Villars, Switzerland, and participation levels increased gradually until 1970. The 1970s witnessed a considerable decline in competitors, with the 1975 event in Livigno attracting fewer than 200 athletes. However, participation rates have risen at almost every Universiade since then, with a record 50 countries taking part at the 2005 Games in Innsbruck. The 2007 Games in Turin featured more than 2,500 competitors, while 2,831 athletes were present at the 2009 Universiade in Harbin, China.