During the Summer Universiade in Kazan the 2nd FISU Young Reporters Programme (YRP) was carried out. The programme, initially launched two years ago with its first edition held in Shenzhen during the 2011 Summer Universiade, offered young students reporters and journalists from all around the world the opportunity to get some additional theoretical, but even more important practical experience.

Between July 6 and 17, 24 young reporters were trained and being mentored at the world’s second-largest sporting event. The programme, entitled U-Media, was organised by the International University Sports Federation (FISU), in cooperation with the Organising Committee of the 27th Summer Universiade Kazan 2013 and the FISU Educational Centre. It also hosted distinguished speakers from Russia, other European countries, as well as the speakers from overseas. Half of the participants (12) came from the host country – Russia, whereas the other half were selected by the FISU through an open call, taking into account the personal qualities of the applicants, geographic dispersion (2 representatives per continent) and gender balance in the selection process.

The following international young reports took part in this year’s programme:

- Africa: Fabio de Dominicis (RSA) & Ndeye Fall (SEN)

- North America: Matt Tidcombe (CAN) & Kelcey Wright (CAN)

- South America: Luana Cruz (BRA) & Ana Verotti (BRA)

- Asia: Rendra Ardyansan (IND) & Jie-Yao Ma (TPE)

- Europe: Ms Lien Cypers (BEL) & Mr Javier Morales Bolivar (ESP)

- Oceania: Leigh Fergusin (AUS) & Thomas Dullard (AUS)

Speakers’ set-list included Alan Abrahamson, Michel Belanger, Verena Burk, Sean Christensen, Helmut Digel, Nicholai Dolgopolov, Nataliya Grenaderova, Craig Jonas, Steve Kelly, Mike Laflin, Ekatererina Orekhova, Christian Pierre and Jing Zhao.

Apart from the speakers, four mentors were responsible for the participants. For the Russian journalists Mr Leo Rossoshik and Mr Alexander Uhov were in charge while the international FISU Young Reporters were tutored by Mr Justin Fauteux from Canada and Mr Andrej Pisl, EUSA Communications manager from Slovenia. General coordinator was Ms Kseniya Vitovskaya from Russia and the programme was managed and supervised by Mrs Verena Burk, Chair of the FISU Media and Communication Committee and Member of the Executive Committee. The international group was coordinated by Mr Christian Pierre, FISU Press Officer from Belgium.

While the young reporters gathered sport journalism theory in the mornings, the afternoons were dedicated to the practical work in the field, accompanied by the working sessions. Each day, the participants had to cover different events, focusing not only on the sports and competitions, but also on the human interest and personal stories.



Although the programme was very challenging, it was also very rewarding and brought a lot of experience to the participants. The successful second edition is already indicating that the programme is most likely to continue also in 2015 during the 28th Summer Universiade in Gwangju, Korea.