With the season of the 2018 World University Championships wrapping up its most ambitious month, the members of the Executive Committee of the International University Sports Federation (FISU) met in Lausanne, Switzerland the last weekend in September.

FISU President Mr Oleg Matytsin opened the meeting by highlighting the organisation’s recent events and charting the year ahead. The biannual meetings brought together the FISU Steering and Executive Committees with members from the 15 FISU committees to the home of international university sport in the Olympic capital city.



President Matytsin reflected on the fact that this year's International Day of University Sport inspired over 75 countries to celebrate sport, physical activity and healthy living on the 20th of September. In addition, the FISU President noted the continuing close collaboration shared between FISU and the IOC, which included the appointment of Olympic athletic high jump champion and IOC Athletes’ Commission Member Mr Stefan Holm to join selected FISU events. FISU President also identified the challenging work ahead of the Summer Universiade 2019. “With only nine months until the Napoli 2019 Opening Ceremony, I believe we really have to work hard together and show our unity to make this Summer Universiade reflect the 60th Anniversary of the Universiade event — and the 70th anniversary of FISU as the global governing body of university sport."

Following the President Matytsin’s remarks, FISU Treasurer Bayasgalan Danzandorj gave a financial report on the activities of the Federation and also mentioned organisation initiatives such as the Volunteer Leaders Academy, Student Ambassadors Programme and the Universiade Torch Relay, new events that have all started in the past two years.



FISU Secretary General-CEO Eric Saintrond introduced the newest staff members to join the FISU team and said the organisation was well-positioned to achieve its aspirations at upcoming sports events, educational programmes and special projects. During the Secretary General’s report, FISU Medical Director Mr Dusan Hamar gave an update on the clean sport efforts of FISU, including the cooperation with the International Testing Agency (ITA) and World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

FISU Education and Development Director Ms Lilia Barieva reported on the progress on the aims and outcomes for the roadmap’s eight strategic focus areas: sport events, education through sport, culture, dual career building, cooperation with international organisations, development, promoting university sport, resources.



The Sport Management Committee oversees four sport properties, namely the Summer Univesiade, the Winter Universiade, the World University Championships and the World University Leagues. Presenting the Sport Management Committee report, FISU Director General Mr Paulo Ferreira spoke of the new team selection blueprint proposed by the Summer Universiade bein adopted also by the Winter Universiade and the World University Championships. Other topics discussed centered on the General Regulations of the World University Leagues, the 2022 WUC sport programme and bidding timeline, specific sport regulations, the Sport Policy and IF collaboration conventions.

Disciplinary Committee has been established, with the mission to maintain the reputation of FISU, to protect FISU athletes and for disciplinary actions. Senior Executive Committee member Ms Verena Burk was appointed as the Executive Committee representative in the Disciplinary Committee. Two representatives from other international Federations will also be appointed.



The Committee for the Development of University Sport (CDSU) has been holding continued dialogues and cooperation with the Continental University Sport Federations as a way to grow the University Sport Movement across the continents.  FISU First Vice-President and CDSU Chair Mr Leonz Eder highlighted the combined efforts in organizing FISU-NUSF seminars. The committee also has been reaching out to individual FISU Member Associations for an in-depth survey that is conducted through individual interviews. FISU help programme will be extended and relaunched, aiming to activate more of the members.

During the report of FISU’s Education Committee, its Chair Ms Verena Burk and the staff gave an overview of the relevant topics, covering the past FISU Forum, upcoming FISU World Conference during the Krasnoyarsk 2019 Winter Universiade, the Budapest 2020 FISU Forum, Scholarship Programmes, etc. Student Committee coordinator Ms Hilkka Poyhonen remarked that the committee played a leading role at the past FISU Forum in several roles and presented best practices of how to better involve students in National University Sport Federations. Titled “Determine The future. Be Part Of The Change,” FISU’s participation at the International Working Group on Women in Sport was the central project for the Federation’s Gender Equality Commission lead by its chair Ms Rosaura Mendez Gamboa. Led by FISU Media and Communication Chair Ms Verena Burk, the FISU Media Staff brought a unique behind-the-scenes look to the teams’ work to play inside leading edge of the communicative, media services and broadcasting fronts.



The activities of the International Day of University Sport (IDUS) were summarised and described as a platform to reconnect with member federations. Over 250 IDUS-related events all over the world, were noted, including sports as well as educational events. As in preceding years, there were two popular ‘City in Motion’ events held in Lausanne, the Olympic capital and in Melbourne, Australia where the third edition of ‘Monash in Motion’ was held.

Following the 2018 edition of the FISU Volunteer Leaders Academy in Kazan, FISU appointed its first Student Ambassadors. In 2019, FISU plans to bring together the same Student Ambassadors in Kazan for a second time.



The Italian city of Naples (Napoli) is to host the 30th edition of the Summer Universiade from 3-14 July 2019. With just nine months to go, the Organising Committee team presented their progress report. The organising committee addressed a number of important points regarding the planning, coordination and delivery of the Universiade. The team was lead by former ARU General Director Mr Gianluca Basile, now promoted to special commissioner in Campania. General overview of the sport venues refurbishment updates and plans to the 63 training and competition areas were given. The San Paolo Stadium Napoli will be refurbished, and will be used for the Opening Ceremony and the Athletics competitions. This 60,000 capacity stadium is the home of S.S.C. Napoli Serie A football team and was also used during the Rome 1960 Summer Olympics. With the Intention of Participation (PI) entry being closed on 3 October, the general entry for both individual and team sports is 3 January 2019, and the announcement of the team selection on 3 February 2019.

With the countdown clock until the start of Winter Universiade 2019 and the Universiade Flame starting its route from Torino in September, Krasnoyarsk organisers appropriately focused their progress report on the delivery of what will be Siberia’s first major multi sports event. Winter Universiade 2019 Director General Mr Maxim Urazov opened the report with a look at the design and construction update of the sports venues and Universiade Village, focusing also on other key aspects. The Heads of Delegation (HOD) Meeting in Krasnoyarsk is scheduled to take place 10-13 October 2018.



In the light of the soon-concluding 2018 FISU World University Championship, the FISU Championships Department delivered their report to the Executive Committee. In 2018, 33 events comprised the Championship season and included four new sports (Cheerleading, Muaythai, Modern Pentathlon, Wushu), with just four more events (Cheerleading, Badminton, Bridge, Sambo) to go.  When the season closes with WUC Sambo in December, 7.000 participants are expected to participate in the competitions. While the 2020 schedule is close to being finalised, the bidding for 2022 will soon start.

As the 3x3 FISU World University League soon begins its fourth season, FISU Director General Paulo Ferreira noted a remarkable growth of the event. The tournament has evolved into a high-class student event with 648 players from 170 teams in the qualifying tournament. The fourth edition of the 3x3 WUL Finals will again take place in Xiamen, China from 15-18 November with 32 teams earning the right to compete. While 3x3 Basketball has been a permanent figure on the FISU schedule, FISU University World Cup - Football, will premiere in Jinjiang, China in 2019. 16 men’s and 8 women’s teams will compete for the title under international exposure. Finals and semi-finals will be broadcasted on television, all games will also be live streamed via FISU’s digital channels. More sports are planned to be gradually added to the Leagues system of university teams competing amongst themselves instead of national teams.



The ceremonial signing of the previously completed host city contract earlier this summer made for history in the making as the two-time Winter Olympics host Lake Placid will now hold the Universiade for a second time.

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