Today, November 13, 2019 marks 20 years since the founding of the European University Sports Association (EUSA), which has grown immensely over its two decades of existence.

It was in Vienna, Austria on this day 20 years ago that delegates from 25 National University Sports Associations gathered to sign the declaration of foundation. The 25 EUSA founding member associations came from Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Yugoslavia (at the time), Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.



Since its humble beginnings, EUSA has grown from strength to strength, and is now made up of 46 member federations.

Two years after its founding, the first European Universities Championships were organised, with just two sporting events taking place in the first edition in 2001 – Basketball and Volleyball, with a combined total of 250 participants.



In its landmark 20^th anniversary this year, a total of 21 different sports were included in the Championships programme, with an impressive 5 242 participants involved – a record in EUSA’s history. Over the 20 years in EUSA’s history, a total of 174 European Universities Championships have been organised, involving almost 40 000 participants.



In 2012, the first European Universities Games was organised in Cordoba, Spain, a multi-sport event involving ten different sports with just over 2 500 participants involved. Next year the fifth edition of the Games will be organised in Belgrade, Serbia, with the programme involving 21 sporting disciplines with an expected participation of over 5 000 attendees.



Over the years, EUSA’s focus has not only been on sport, but educational development and social responsibility as well. The association has been involved in over 20 projects, many of them funded by FISU and the European Union involving partners across Europe, while EUSA has also organised a number of conferences, symposiums, seminars and conventions, allowing members and guests to be informed, share experiences, network and exchange knowledge and ideas.



The 2019 EUSA Conference, Extraordinary General Assembly and Gala in Aveiro, Portugal in September was where the association’s main 20^th anniversary celebrations took place, gathering over 150 participants to not only engage in interesting topics and plan the way forward, but also celebrate EUSA’s achievements over the past 20 years. A number of special awards were also handed out at the Gala event to recognise the contributions of many who have done immense work in the European university sport sphere over the years.



To mark the date of EUSA’s founding, a small birthday celebration was held today in the EUSA Office in Ljubljana, Slovenia, with EUSA staff and other local university sport representatives gathering to commemorate the special occasion.