FISU World University Games facts for kids

Quick facts for kids FISU World University Games
The flag of the International University Sports Federation.
Status	active
Genre	sporting event
Frequency	biennial
Location(s)	various
Inaugurated	1959 (1959) (summer) 1960 (1960) (winter)
Organised by	FISU

The FISU World University Games, formerly the Universiade, is an international multi-sport event, organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The former name is a portmanteau of the words "University" and "Olympiad".

The Universiade is referred to in English as the World University Games or World Student Games; however, this latter term can also refer to competitions for sub-University grades students. In July 2020 as part of a new branding system by the FISU, it was stated that the Universiade will be officially branded as the FISU World University Games.

The most recent summer event was the 2019 Summer Universiade in Naples, Italy. The most recent winter event was the 2023 Winter World University Games held in Lake Placid, United States from 11–21 January 2023, after the 2021 edition scheduled to be held in Lucerne, Switzerland was cancelled due the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 Summer World University Games were scheduled to be held in Chengdu, China, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic has been postponed three times and will now be held in 2023, after the 2023 Summer World University Games, set to be held in Yekaterinburg, Russia, were postponed after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. At this moment the 2023 Summer World University Games has the postponed status according to the official FISU website.

Precursors

A student football match held at the 3rd World Festival of Youth and Students

During the 1989 Summer Universiade

During the 2011 Summer Universiade

The idea of a global international sports competition between student-athletes pre-dates the 1949 formation of the International University Sports Federation (FISU), which now hosts the Universiade, and even the very first World University Games held in 1923. English peace campaigner Hodgson Pratt was an early advocate of such an event, proposing (and passing) a motion at the 1891 Universal Peace Congress in Rome to create a series of international student conferences in rotating host capital cities, with activities including art and sport. This did not come to pass, but a similar event was created in Germany in 1909 in the form of the Academic Olympia. Five editions were held from 1909 to 1913, all of which were hosted in Germany following the cancellation of an Italy-based event.

Opening ceremony of the 2017 Summer Universiade

At the start of the 20th century, Jean Petitjean of France began attempting to organise a "University Olympic Games". After discussion with Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games, Petitjean was convinced not to use the word "Olympic" in the tournament's name. Petitjean, and later the Confederation Internationale des Etudiants (CIE), was the first to build a series of international events, beginning with the 1923 International Universities Championships. This was followed by the renamed 1924 Summer Student World Championships a year later and two further editions were held in 1927 and 1928. Another name change resulted in the 1930 International University Games. The CIE's International University Games was held four more times in the 1930s before having its final edition in 1947.

A separate group organised an alternative university games in 1939 in Vienna, in post-Anschluss Germany. The onset of World War II ceased all major international student sport activities and the aftermath also led to division among the movement, as the CIE was disbanded and rival organisations emerged. The Union Internationale des Étudiants (UIE) incorporated a university sports games into the World Festival of Youth and Students from 1947 to 1962, including one separate, unofficial games in 1954. This event principally catered for Eastern European countries.

After the closure of the CIE and the creation of the first UIE-organised games, FISU came into being in 1949 and held its own first major student sport event the same year in the form of the 1949 Summer International University Sports Week. The Sports Week was held biennially until 1955. Like the CIE's games before it, the FISU events were initially Western-led sports competitions.

Division between the largely Western European FISU and Eastern European UIE eventually began to dissipate among broadened participation at the 1957 World University Games. This event was not directly organised by either group, instead being organised by Jean Petitjean in France (which remained neutral to the split), but all respective nations from the groups took part. The FISU-organised Universiade became the direct successor to this competition, maintaining the biennial format into the inaugural 1959 Universiade. It was not until the 1957 World University Games that the Soviet Union began to compete in FISU events. That same year, what had previously been a European competition became a truly global one, with the inclusion of Brazil, Japan and the United States among the competing nations. The increased participation ultimately led to the establishment of the Universiade as the primary global student sport championship.

Precursor events

Not recognized by FISU as Universide:

Precursor events

#	Year	Event	Body	Host city	Host country
1	1923	International Universities Championships	CIE	Paris	France
2	1924	Summer Student World Championships	CIE	Warsaw	Poland
3	1927	Summer Student World Championships	CIE	Rome	Italy
4	1928	Summer Student World Championships	CIE	Paris	France
5	1930	International University Games	CIE	Darmstadt	Germany
6	1933	International University Games	CIE	Turin	Italy
7	1935	International University Games	CIE	Budapest	Hungary
8	1937	International University Games	CIE	Paris	France
9	1939	International University Games	CIE	Monte Carlo	Monaco
10	1939	International University Games	CIE	Vienna	Germany
11	1947	International University Games	CIE	Paris	France
12	1947	World Festival of Youth and Students	UIE	Prague	Czechoslovakia
13	1949	World Festival of Youth and Students	UIE	Budapest	Hungary
14	1949	Summer International University Sports Week	FISU	Merano	Italy
15	1951	World Festival of Youth and Students	UIE	East Berlin	East Germany
16	1951	Summer International University Sports Week	FISU	Luxembourg	Luxembourg
17	1953	World Festival of Youth and Students	UIE	Bucharest	Romania
18	1953	Summer International University Sports Week	FISU	Dortmund	West Germany
19	1955	World Festival of Youth and Students	UIE	Warsaw	Poland
20	1955	Summer International University Sports Week	FISU	San Sebastián	Spain
21	1957	World Festival of Youth and Students	UIE	Moscow	Soviet Union
22	1957	World University Games	CIE	Paris	France
23	1959	World Festival of Youth and Students	UIE	Vienna	Austria
24	1962	World Festival of Youth and Students	UIE	Helsinki	Finland

Summer World University Games

Location map

Editions

Overview of summer Universiade events

Games	Year	Host country	Host city	Opened by	Dates	Nations	Competitors	Sports	Events	Top nation
1	1959	Italy	Turin	Giovanni Gronchi	26 August – 7 September	45	985	7	60	Italy
2	1961	Bulgaria	Sofia	Dimitar Ganev	25 August – 3 September	32	1270	9	68	Soviet Union
3	1963	Brazil	Porto Alegre	Paulo de Tarso Santos	30 August – 8 September	27	917	9	70	Soviet Union
4	1965	Hungary	Budapest	István Dobi	20–30 August	32	1729	9	74	Hungary
5	1967	Japan	Tokyo	Hirohito	27 August – 4 September	30	937	10	83	United States
6	1970	Italy	Turin	Giuseppe Saragat	26 August – 6 September	40	2080	9	82	Soviet Union
7	1973	Soviet Union	Moscow	Leonid Brezhnev	15–25 August	72	2765	10	111	Soviet Union
8	1975	Italy	Rome	Giovanni Leone	18–21 August	38	450	1	38	Soviet Union
9	1977	Bulgaria	Sofia	Todor Zhivkov	17–28 August	78	2939	10	101	Soviet Union
10	1979	Mexico	Mexico City	José López Portillo	2–13 September	85	2974	10	97	Soviet Union
11	1981	Romania	Bucharest	Nicolae Ceaușescu	19–30 July	86	2912	10	133	Soviet Union
12	1983	Canada	Edmonton	Prince Charles	1–12 July	73	2400	10	118	Soviet Union
13	1985	Japan	Kobe	Akihito	24 August – 4 September	106	3949	11	123	Soviet Union
14	1987	Yugoslavia	Zagreb	Lazar Mojsov	8–19 July	122	6423	12	139	United States
15	1989	West Germany	Duisburg	Helmut Kohl	22–30 August	79	1785	4	66	Soviet Union
16	1991	United Kingdom	Sheffield	Anne, Princess Royal	14–25 July	101	3346	11	119	United States
17	1993	United States	Buffalo	Primo Nebiolo	8–18 July	118	3582	12	135	United States
18	1995	Japan	Fukuoka	Naruhito	23 August – 3 September	118	3949	12	144	United States
19	1997	Italy	Sicily	Oscar Luigi Scalfaro	20–31 August	122	3582	10	129	United States
20	1999	Spain	Palma de Mallorca	Infanta Elena, Duchess of Lugo	3–13 July	114	4076	12	142	United States
21	2001	China	Beijing	Jiang Zemin	22 August – 1 September	165	6757	12	170	China
22	2003	South Korea	Daegu	Roh Moo-hyun	21–31 August	174	7180	13	189	China
23	2005	Turkey	Izmir	Ahmet Necdet Sezer	11–22 August	133	7816	15	195	Russia
24	2007	Thailand	Bangkok	Vajiralongkorn	8–18 August	150	12000	15	236	China
25	2009	Serbia	Belgrade	Mirko Cvetković	1–12 July	145	5379	15	203	Russia
26	2011	China	Shenzhen	Hu Jintao	12–23 August	165	7999	24	306	China
27	2013	Russia	Kazan	Vladimir Putin	6–17 July	162	10442	27	351	Russia
28	2015	South Korea	Gwangju	Park Geun-hye	3–14 July	142	12885	21	274	South Korea
29	2017	Chinese Taipei	Taipei	Tsai Ing-wen	19–30 August	145	11397	22	272	Japan
30	2019	Italy	Naples	Sergio Mattarella	3–14 July	112	5971	18	220	Japan
31	2023	China	Chengdu		28 July – 8 August,2023			18	268
32	2025	Germany	Rhine-Ruhr region		16–27 July			18	225
33	2027	South Korea	Chungcheong Province					17
34	2029	United States	Research Triangle					18

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	503	433	418	1354
2	China	447	406	254	1107
3	Russia	432	364	418	1214
4	Soviet Union	406	308	273	987
5	Japan	343	338	388	1069
6	South Korea	245	201	237	683
7	Italy	184	198	260	642
8	Ukraine	178	182	177	537
9	Romania	149	130	147	426
10	Hungary	117	96	107	320
Totals (10 nations)		3004	2656	2679	8339

Winter World University Games

Location map

Editions

Winter World University Games editions

Games	Year	Host country	Host city	Opened by	Dates	Nations	Competitors	Sports	Events	Top nation
											1	1960	France	Chamonix	Charles de Gaulle	28 February – 6 March	16	151	5	13	France
2	1962	Switzerland	Villars	Paul Chaudet	6–12 March	22	273	6	12	West Germany
3	1964	Czechoslovakia	Špindlerův Mlýn	Antonín Novotný	11–17 February	21	285	5	15	West Germany
4	1966	Italy	Sestriere	Giuseppe Saragat	5–13 February	29	434	6	19	Soviet Union
5	1968	Austria	Innsbruck	Franz Jonas	21–28 January	26	424	7	23	Soviet Union
6	1970	Finland	Rovaniemi	Urho Kekkonen	3–9 April	25	421	7	24	Soviet Union
7	1972	United States	Lake Placid	Richard Nixon	26 February – 5 March	23	351	7	25	Soviet Union
8	1975	Italy	Livigno	Giovanni Leone	6–13 April	15	143	2	13	Soviet Union
9	1978	Czechoslovakia	Špindlerův Mlýn	Gustáv Husák	5–12 February	21	260	7	16	Soviet Union
10	1981	Spain	Jaca	Juan Carlos I	25 February – 4 March	28	394	7	19	Soviet Union
11	1983	Bulgaria	Sofia	Todor Zhivkov	17–27 February	28	535	7	21	Soviet Union
12	1985	Italy	Belluno	Sandro Pertini	16–24 February	34	538	7	30	Soviet Union
13	1987	Czechoslovakia	Štrbské Pleso	Gustáv Husák	21–28 February	21	596	6	25	Czechoslovakia
14	1989	Bulgaria	Sofia	Todor Zhivkov	2–12 March	21	681	8	40	Soviet Union
15	1991	Japan	Sapporo	Naruhito	2–10 March	34	668	8	40	Japan
16	1993	Poland	Zakopane	Lech Wałęsa	6–14 February	41	668	8	36	Japan
17	1995	Spain	Jaca	Juan Carlos I	18–28 February	41	765	9	35	South Korea
18	1997	South Korea	Muju-Jeonju	Kim Young-sam	24 January – 2 February	48	877	9	51	Japan
19	1999	Slovakia	Poprad-Vysoké Tatry	Rudolf Schuster	22–30 January	40	926	8	52	Russia
20	2001	Poland	Zakopane	Aleksander Kwaśniewski	7–17 February	41	1,007	9	52	Russia
21	2003	Italy	Tarvisio	Renzo Tondo	16–26 January	46	1,266	10	59	Russia
22	2005	Austria	Innsbruck-Seefeld	Heinz Fischer	12–22 January	50	1,449	11	68	Austria
23	2007	Italy	Turin	George Killian	17–27 January	48	1,638	11	72	South Korea
24	2009	China	Harbin	Liu Yandong	18–28 February	44	1,545	12	81	China
25	2011	Turkey	Erzurum	Abdullah Gül	27 January – 6 February	52	1,593	11	66	Russia
26	2013	Italy	Trentino	Ugo Rossi	11–21 December	50	1,698	12	79	Russia
27	2015	Slovakia	Štrbské Pleso–Osrblie	Andrej Kiska	24 January – 1 February	43	1,546	11	68	Russia
		Spain	Granada	Felipe VI	4–14 February
28	2017	Kazakhstan	Almaty	Nursultan Nazarbayev	29 January – 8 February	57	1,604	12	85	Russia
29	2019	Russia	Krasnoyarsk	Vladimir Putin	2–12 March	58	3,000	11	76	Russia
30	2021	Switzerland	Lucerne	Cancelled, due to the COVID-19 pandemic
31	2023	United States	Lake Placid	Kathy Hochul	12–22 January	47	1443	12	85	Japan
32	2025	Italy	Turin		13-23 January			12
33	2027	bid submissions accepted until 31 January 2022
34	2029	bid submissions accepted until 31 January 2022

Medal table

Rank	NUSF	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Russia (RUS)	207	188	180	575
2	South Korea (KOR)	121	86	78	285
3	Japan (JPN)	112	119	107	338
4	Soviet Union (URS)*	103	92	67	262
5	China (CHN)	73	65	76	214
6	France (FRA)	59	59	61	179
7	Poland (POL)	56	64	62	182
8	Italy (ITA)	55	59	66	180
9	Czechoslovakia (TCH)*	54	40	25	119
10	Austria (AUT)	50	54	56	160
Totals (10 nusfs)		890	826	778	2494

See also

In Spanish: Universiadas para niños

• International University Sports Federation
• FISU World University Championships
• FISU America Games
• ASEAN University Games
• International Children's Games