Proclaimed by the UNESCO Member States, the International Day of University Sport (IDUS) was celebrated for the first time in 2016 on and around September 20.

EUSA office organised a hike up Roznik Hill in Ljubljana, where the main office is located, inviting partner organisations, sports governing bodies, universities, ministries and European ambassadors.

We would like to share with you how EUSA member federations were celebrating the day across Europe.



A shooting championship was dedicated to IDUS, held at ASUE’s (Armenian State University of Economics) rifle range on September 20th. The event was organized by ASUE and the Student Sport Federation of Armenia (ARMSSF). Competitors from more than 15 state and non-state universities attended the championship.



All universities with a University Sports Department, the Federal Ministry of Defence and Sports, the Austrian Olympic Committee, the Austrian Sports Organization were asked to distribute video, produced by Unisport Austria, through their media channels. The aim was to improve the awareness of University Sports in Austria.
#IDUS2016 was hosted as an interactive sports and cultural event on September 20th, on campus of the University of Applied Sciences Kufstein in Tirol. A wide range of activities were organised such as workshops for Zumba, Hip-Hop, Yoga, work stations where strength, speed and skill could be measured as well as small sports tournaments in street basketball and performances by pole dancers and circus artists.



In Finland, #IDUS2016 was celebrated in the city of Tampere. The event took place in the new sport facilities of Tampere University of Applied Sciences and was arranged by the Finnish Student Sport Federation (OLL), the Finnish Olympic Committee and Tampere Sports Academy together with Unipoli Sport which provides sport services for university students and personnel, a total of 40,000 persons in Tampere.



Across campuses, cities and beaches in France, FFSportU honoured September 20th by putting new sports and old ones at the heart of the celebrations of #IDUS2016.
Special attention goes to the French National Sports Museum in Nice that welcomed the Regional Committee of French University Sport and speaker Marc Peltier, professor at the law faculty of the University of Nice.
The Anti-Doping Textbook and teaching material have been designed to be a comprehensive overview of doping in sport and issues related to this. Their target audience is those university students who will one day be involved in sport in many different capacities and disciplines.



In connection to the IDUS the biggest and oldest university of Hungary organised the ‘Eötvös 5 km’ running event for the 31st time. The race is named after Loránd Eötvös, famous physicist whom the university was also named after.
Like the Lausanne in Motion programme, this event is also focusing on the connection of the city and the university; the mayor of the district will start the race, employees of big companies situated on the campus are also going to compete. The awards will be presented by the rector of the university. More than a half of the 1,000 participants are either students or professors, the other half citizens of Budapest. Besides the running event, workshops, concerts and exhibitions are also being organized.



ASA Israel celebrated by gathering at Tel-Hai College which is the northernmost Academic institute in the Upper Galilee along with ASA Executive Members and the National Union of Israeli Students (NUIS). The meeting was a combination of Sport and develop plan for Student sport in Israel which started with a short session of Pilates on a balcony with a great view to the Upper Galilee. ASA and the Sport NUIS committee presented a new develop plan for the Israeli Student Sport: ASA and the NUIS will fund for every Academic institute a Sports Coordinator in order to develop the Sport and Health at every institute who decide to join the program.



On the occasion of #IDUS2016 on September 20th, the University of Liechtenstein, in partnership with the University Sports Federation of Liechtenstein (LHSV) and the Liechtenstein Olympic Committee, organized an event in order to celebrate IDUS. Students, employees and guests were invited to participate in different try-out sessions to get to know the University´s sports programme. Among others, the participants were able to play floorball matches, compete in table tennis or join the Freeletics session. The day concluded with an information fair where students had the chance to inform themselves about the sports offers at the University of Liechtenstein and in the country.



On September 20th, the Lithuanian Students Sports Association together with the Lithuanian Sports University began its #IDUS2016 celebration in Kaunas with a sporty day for 200 students. About 30 students were from the ERASMUS programme, coming from different countries such as Portugal, Spain, Croatia and Kazakhstan. The sporty day begun with a Flashmob, followed by different sport activities like Tug-of-war, a mixed 3x3 basketball tournament, Hel-Pong and Funny relays.



In Macedonia (FYRM) the national university sport federation (USFM) organised the National University Championship of Macedonia in sports shooting with air rifle in the nation’s capital city, Skopje to celebrate the international day of university sport 2016.



Student Sports Federation of Montenegro in cooperation with Montenegro Lustica Bay organised a day trip to celebrate #IDUS2016. The day was provided free of charge and included a hike up Lustica peninsula, golf, games on the beach and also swimming for people interested.



On September 22 and 23, the International University Sports festival “Oslo in Motion” took place at the University of Oslo. The event included a full sports program including sports for people with disabilities, an opening ceremony with several guests, lectures as part of a huge educational program, an exhibition to celebrate University Sports in Norway, concerts and cultural performances, a debate about University sports, health and friendship and other guests invited specially to promote the values of University sport during the festival.



To celebrate #IDUS2016 Krakow AZS organized two events, the first was the University Cooper Test consisting of 12 minutes of continuous running. The other event was the Jubilee celebration of the 40th anniversary of KS AZS AWF Krakow sport club - one of the best clubs in the Malopolska region. A rowing championship was hosted and attended by nearly 40 clubs from all over Poland. The competition was attended by nearly 300 participants including many Olympians from Rio.



FADU, Portugal University Sports, promoted on 17 and 18 September the celebrations of #IDUS2016, at Edificio Transparente at Porto. The first day was dedicated to the FADU Forum, attended by some of the leading figures of the National University Sports.
On the second day, FADU and Academic Federation of Porto promoted a day of sports activities, open to the public and the first Tournament Inter-Academies of #IDUS2016, where ten teams from around the country attended.



In Russia, the Ural Federal University’s sport club organised a festival to celebrate #IDUS2016 on September 20th. The festival held within their university campus hosted an eventful program including Table Tennis and Chess.
Krasnoyarsk celebrated the International Day of University Sport between the 20th and 25th of September, as the host city of the Winter Universiade in 2019 conducted different events aimed at popularization of university sports. The students tried new sports, make new friends, learn more about the Games to be held in Krasnoyarsk and find out how to become a member of the team to prepare for such a huge event.
 


To celebrate #IDUS2016 in Slovenia, open door activities and info points at University of Ljubljana’s Rozna Dolina sports facilities. Later on in the day the Rector of the University of Ljubljana invited university students,  and medallists from the European Universities Games in Zagreb and Rijeka this summer to a special reception at the University.



The University of Valencia held on Tuesday, September 20, on #IDUS2016 a range of physical and sports activities for students and workers. An open day on the campus of Blasco Ibáñez brought together more than 500 students where they enjoyed an afternoon of healthy physical activity in which they could choose among 17 different activities: zumba, hip-hop, aerotonic, aero-GAC, flamenco, basketball, football, handball, tennis, football 7 rugby, volleyball, tennis inclusive table, badminton, paddle tennis, paddle tennis wheelchair and inclusive goalball. A small sample of the range of activities and sports schools that the Servei d'Educació Física i Esports offers citizenship.



Five University Sports Organizations in Switzerland offered special activities to their students and employees. This included a Charity Cycling Marathon, Spinning, Box Aerobic, Step Aerobics, Yoga, and Badminton. Bern University helped SUSF to organize a friendly basketball game between Chinese Exchange Students in Switzerland and a team from Berne University.  
As part of the celebrations of the IDUS, FISU in partnership with the city of Lausanne and its universities, organized the second edition of the Festival ‘Lausanne in Motion’ which celebrates the benefits of sport and physical activity.



Turkish University Sports Federation celebrated #idus2016 in Çorum at the Hitit University on September 26. The city of Çorum will also be hosting World University Wrestling Championship in October 2016 and the European Universities Futsal Championship in July 2017.
Turkish University Sports Federation President, Hitit University Rector, Board members, and many students attended the festival. The activities were Goalball, Badminton, Table Tennis, Basketball 3x3, 3 point contest and Gymnastics shows.

The summaries above are not an exhaustive list; these are examples of activities which were reported to us until end of September. EUSA is very proud of its members, partners and universities for promoting the International Day of University Sport and wishes to thank everyone for their activities and celebrations of this important day!

For more information and resources, please see our International Day of University Sport page.