The Executive Committee of the International University Sports Federation (FISU) met virtually on Thursday, October 8. The second meeting of the year focused on the current situation and on charting a future course.

FISU President Mr Oleg Matytsin opened the meeting by thanking the entire FISU family for keeping the energy of university sports up through the COVID-19 lockdown, for continuing to develop the FISU programme and preparing for the main events for the next few years. Mr Matytsin also presented the report on behalf of the Steering Committee, followed by an overview given by FISU Secretary General Mr Eric Saintrond.



The major challenge in the past six months was the management of the COVID-19 crisis and its impact on the work and functioning of FISU, as well as its members, partners, events organisers and wider community. Almost the entire World University Championship season except Speed Skating (held in March) and Online Mind Sports (scheduled for late October) has been cancelled. FISU’s postponed sports events also include the 2020 University World Cup 3X3 Basketball as well as the World Univeristy Games in Lucerne, originally scheduled for January 2021.

The pandemic situation led to innovation and adaptation for some of FISU’s flagship educational events, such as the 2020 FISU World Forum and the FISU Volunteer Leaders Academy that were organised virtually for the first time. Also some other virtual campaigns and events were organised through the lockdown, including the first-ever FISU eSports Challenge Football, the #FitAtHome social media campaign and the IDUS Dance Challenge, created for the International Day of University Sport.

Reports from the Education Committee, FISU Development Committee, Media & Communication Committee were presented, as well as updates on the FISU Healthy Campus project, FISU World University Championships and University World Cups.



On the topic of the FISU World University Games, the decision on the postponed Winter Games Lucerne 2021 will be made by the end of the month, but December 2021 is being considered as a viable option. The preparations for the Summer Games Chengdu 2021 are ongoing, closely monitoring the developments related to the Tokyo Olympics.

The Executive Committee meeting concluded with progress reports from more future hosts of the World University Games; including the Organising Committees of the Lake Placid 2023 and Ekaterinburg 2023 winter and summer editions respectively. Also the bidding process for the 2025 Games has been discussed, already having two strong interested countries from Europe - Germany for the 2025 Summer Games, and Italy for the Winter edition.

FISU Executive Committee will be in session next on November 6, 2020. For more information, please see www.fisu.net.