2015 WU: FISU SG/CEO and Staff Visit Sierra Nevada

On March 19 and 20, 2010, the FISU Secretary General/CEO, Eric Saintrond, and Director of WU, Milan Augustin, accompanied by Caroline Feyaerts, Assistant to SG/CEO, paid an important visit to Granada (in Sierra Nevada), the city which will host the Winter Universiade in 2015.

The purpose of the meeting was to meet with the relevant parties which form the Granada OC as to initiate and establish a very close collaboration between both FISU and OC of Granada. The different parties were represented by:

– University of Granada (Prof. Francisco Sánchez-Montes González, General Coordinator of the Games)

– Cetursa in Sierra Nevada (Maria Jose Lopez Gónzalez, Director General – Eduardo Valenzuela, Mountain Manager – Ignazio Valenzuela, Marketing Director – Encarnita Terron, Assistant to DG)

– Royal Spanish Federation of Winter Sports (Eduardo Roldán, President)

– Council of Granada (Ivan López Ariza, Sports Councilor)

– City Hall of Granada (Maria Francisca Carazo, Sports Councilor)

The topics of the meeting focused on the overall preparation of the Games (budget, snow and ice facilities, Athletes’ Village, etc.) and the responsibilities of all necessary parties were thoroughly discussed. All these topics will be clearly analyzed by these different parties and will be reported to the FISU Executive Committee meeting foreseen next May in Shenzhen (CHN).

Many infrastructural construction projects are foreseen for Granada (site for ice sports and the Athletes’ Village), Sierra Nevada (site for Alpine skiing, Snowboarding, Freestyle skiing) and Puerto de la Ragua (site for Cross country skiing and Biathlon). These projects include the extension of slopes for Alpine Skiing, the new construction of the Cross Country Skiing and Biathlon stadium, a new campus for the Athletes’ Village (with a capacity of 3,000 for athletes and officials). Furthermore, automatic snow making systems covering all the venues and the Snow Sport Competition Command Centre as well as some brand new ice rinks will be used for WU 2015. The construction of these new facilities must be launched at an early stage in order to provide optimal conditions for the WU and serve for test events which are scheduled minimum 1 year before the start of WU.

Since the WU was attributed to Granada in May 2009, several major FIS international events have been organized like the World Cup final in Moguls and Ski Cross. FISU representatives attended the latter during their visit and also met with Chair CT Freestyle Skiing, Luc Kohly, involved in the event. Of course, these competitions generate good promotion and already serve as test events for the Granada WU, proving that the competition equipment and venues are operating successfully.

The importance of promoting this event was emphasized to the OC and, in this regard, FISU has an important role to play at the next SportAccord Convention which will be held at the end of April and will gather all International Sports Federations.

Eric Saintrond, Milan Augustin & Luc Kohly