Behind the Scenes at the Heart of the Universiade

TRENTINO – Coordinating a Universiade is a complex procedure, especially when the venues are as spread out as they are in Trentino. To cope with this, there is the Main Operating Centre, the real heartbeat of the games.

“We check and control the day by day organization; we are connected directly with all of the sport venues,” explained Secretary-General of the games, Filippo Bazzanella. “This is the head of the games, everything passes through this office. Most of the important decisions are taken here.”

The office has eight screens linking to the sporting venues with an additional two screens that have tickers, one showing the central emergency display and the other showing the call centre regarding general questions. There are also direct radio links to all the venues. This all allows the Main Operation Center (M.O.C.) to keep its finger on the pulse of the games.

Issues may involve anything from traffic jams to sports delays to the more serious injuries. For the Head of the International Department, Julia Hoch, the latter is the most trying, “When the athletes go to hospital it is the most stressful. We need to organise everything, make sure their heads of delegations know.”

Unusually for an M.O.C. there are several senior figures present, as opposed to only one, to ensure the smooth running of events. This decision was taken due to the short preparation times for the games. What is clear, though, is that without the M.O.C. the Universiade would not be able to run.

Toby Fisher, FISU Young Reporter – Photos by Javier Morales