The past few days have been very busy for the Organising Committee of the European Universities Games Zagreb-Rijeka 2016 (EUG2016), the staff of the European University Sports Association (EUSA) and the volunteers.

All the pieces start coming together as today more than one thousand participants are arriving to enjoy the welcoming atmosphere of the 3rd edition of the European Universities Games, before getting on court to compete in 21 sports, dedicating two of them to students with disabilities and incorporating them into the competitions.



On Tuesday July 12th, the Games will officially starts with the first races, games and matches being fought in basketball, chess, karate, rowing and rugby7s in Zagreb and water polo in Rijeka.

While we were running around trying to catch ‘behind the scene moments’ for our established social media channels on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and our new Instagram account (@eusaunisport), we spotted a team of smiling athletes and coaches taking a group picture around the Games’ banner in front of the operation center. The opportunity to discuss with one of the first teams to arrive was too good to be missed, so we approached them for a short talk.



The players of the women's basketball team from the University of Goettingen (Germany) are all participating for the first time in such an event. The German University Sport Federation (ADH)  is sending again a huge delegation to the Games with more than 400 participants. They are all excited to meet with people from all across Europe. While they prepared very seriously for the Games, and of course are here to perform at their best, they also expect to have a great time here.

Many of them are playing in 2nd league clubs in Germany and are considered as semi-professional athletes. We asked them how they manage to combine their studies and their high-level practice of basketball. “Discipline” they answered, another perfect embodiment of university sport’s motto.



Team G, as they call themselves, has been sharing its preparation for the EUG on Facebook, gathering almost 500 followers! More and more teams are using innovative ways to communicate about their participation in the Games; like the University of Reading rowing team on Instagram. A clear sign that the Games are much more than two weeks of intense competition!



But the teams are not the only one we are happy to greet today. We recognised some familiar faces among the volunteers who are also fully experiencing the Games. The first time we met with Eszter and Fruzsina from Hungary was in 2012 during the very first edition of the Games in Cordoba where they were part of the small team of international volunteers. Of course they didn’t miss the Games in Rotterdam in between, and here they are now, taking two weeks off work to join us one more time! It is always a pleasure to be able to rely on our long standing volunteers who have experienced the Games before. A big thanks definitely goes to all the volunteers, and we are especially proud of the returning ones.

Keep on following EUSA and EUG2016 also on our social media channels, and follow the largest European university sport event live or online!