2011 SU Update: Young Reporters Start Working

The participants of the Young Reporters’ Program and their mentors

SHENZHEN – Today, August 12th, the Young Reporters’ Seminar kicked off with the first morning session. After Program Director Alan Abrahamson coached the participants how to speak in front of the camera by letting them introduce themselves, the morning session was an introduction on FISU. Chair of the International Press Committee Leonz Eder introduced the other FISU Speakers, i.e. IPC Vice-Chair Verena Burk, Press Officer Christian Pierre and Universiade Assistant Jing Zhao.

FISU Young Reporter Justin Fauteux (CAN) listended carefully and wrote the story.

International University Sport Federation (FISU) press officer posed a few simple questions to a room of over 60 young reporters.

“How many of you have read the FISU magazine,” he asked. None raised their hands.

“How many of you heard of FISU before you got here?” Less than half the arms in the room went into the air. Apparently, this morning’s introductory lecture on the history and operation of FISU and the Universiade would be quite necessary.

AIPS President Gianni MerloIn the first of the 11 seminars the young journalists, who hail from all five continents and 33 different countries, will take part in, Pierre, along with Leonz Eder and Verena Burk, chair and vice-chair of the FISU international press committee, respectively, attempted to shed some light on the Universiade’s governing body.

Burk covered the majority of FISU’s history, from its 1947 inception, through the organization’s development, which has seen it grow to 163 member federations from all five continents. She also enlightened the young journalists to the fact that FISU does, in fact, operate outside the Univerisades.

Alan Abrahamson coaches a Young Journalist from SerbiaDuring years in which there are no University Games, FISU hosts sepearte World Championships in 33 different sports, which go beyond the Universiade’s compulsory events to include such obscure athletic pursuits as woodball, a kind of golf-croquet particularly popular in Asia.

Pierre then discussed how FISU attempts to combat its lack of popularity, which he concedes is the organization biggest obstacle.

“That’s our biggest problem,” he said. “No one knows who is competing in our games because they’re all student athletes.”

To try and promote the organization and its events, FISU issues a quarterly magazine and regular press releases, while being active on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.

However, for this year’s Universiade in Shenzhen, FISU has taken promotion to a new level. For the first time in University Games history, live video of 20 or the 24 Universiade events will be hosted on the FISU website. This is in addition game highlights being available on demand.

Leonz Eder

Verena Burk

Christian Pierre

Jing Zhao