Swiss win Gold for submitting 2013 SU Entries

KAZAN – The first country to compete at 27th Summer Universiade in the city of Kazan has been unveiled as representatives of Switzerland have submitted the general entry form to the Organising Committee.

The Swiss NFencer Fabian Kauter, SU veteran (2005, 2007, 2009) and multiple medallist (2007 & 2009) will be in Kazan, but first in London for the OlympicsUSF always send a large delegation to FISU events, especially the Unviersaides. Team Switzerland’s roster for Universiades over the past ten years traditionally includes up to 100 student athletes. The Swiss also take home some medals in the last FISU Summer Games: 5 medals (1-3-1) at the Shenzhen 2011 Summer Universiade; 5 medals (3-1-1) at the Belgrade 2009 Summer Universiade; 4 medals (2-0-2) at the Bangkok 2007 Summer Universiade. Another fact worth mentioning is that Switzerland was among 45 countries that made their debut at the first Summer Universiade in Turin in 1959.

On July 6th, when Kazan marked one year to go to the Opening Ceremony of the 2013 Summer Universiade, 205 countries of the world received invitations to the largest international university sports competitions (27 sports!) in FISU history scheduled to be held in the sports capital of Russia next summer.

The invitations were signed by Igor Shuvalov, Chairman of the Kazan 2013 Organising Committee and 1st Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation; Claude-Louis Gallien, President of FISU; Oleg Matytsin, President of the Russian Student Sports Union, and were issued both to members and non-members of FISU.

As of today, it’s possible to predict that the 2013 Summer Universiade will bring together around 170 nations and the total number of athletes and officials that will come to Kazan for the Games will reach record levels: some 13,500 participants are predicted. They all will be accommodated in the Universiade Village which will serve as their ‘home away from home’ at Games time.

The largest delegations besides host Russia – up to 500 athletes and more – are expected from such sporting nations as the USA, Canada, China and Japan.

(Media Department of Kazan 2013 Executive Committee)