FISU Executive Committee in Gwangju, day 2

GWANGJU – Dr. Lawrence Rink, Chair of the International Medical Committee of FISU, started the second day of meetings of the FISU Executive Board. Dr. Rink presented the second edition (after Kazan in 2013) of the ‘Check Up Your Heart’ programme that will allow athletes participating at the Universiade to receive an accurate diagnosis of cardiac risk they might be exposed to when participating in a competition. Be aware that in some countries and for different reasons, athletes do not have access to simple controls that allow to know them their level of risk. Thanks to the cooperation of the GUOC 2015 and Chonnam National University Hospital , the tests will take place and all the athletes who underwent the test will receive an electronic record on a USB key. This is also an opportunity to collect all these data which is unique for a sports competition of this magnitude.

Dr Lawrence Rink

Dr. Rink also discussed MERS, the coronavirus that appeared for the first time in Korea (migrating from the Middle East). FISU wishes to be transparent in this regard and has published numerous releases on its website. According to Dr. Rink, MERS will have no impact on the Gwangju Universiade knowing that the city is located in an area where the risk is very low. Basic hygiene measures will allow athletes to minimise any risk of contamination.

Ms Li-Fang Chou, CEO of the Taipei 2017 OC and deputy Mayor of Taipei City

Next, the representatives of the Taipei City 2017 Organising Committee led by their CEO, Ms. Li-Fang Chou, who is also the Deputy Mayor of Taipei City, submitted its first progress report (since the elections and the emergence of a new OC) to the Executive Committee. The delegates reviewed the different areas where the preparation is progressing: construction of new stadiums, renovation of old venues, construction of the Athletes’ Village, marketing plan, increased staff, recruitment of volunteers, etc. FISU President Claude-Louis Gallien reminded the OC certain of its obligations in particular as regards the organisation of the Opening Ceremony in the ‘Dome’ which is still under construction.

Almaty 2017 from left to right Abilkhaiyr Nurzhan, OC Deputy Director, Grechkhin Mikhail, OC Deputy Director , Sirotina Svetlana, PR and Promotion department specialist and Urazakov Ilya, OC Director General

Less than two years before the start of the 2017 Winter Universiade, delegates from the Almaty Universiade Organizing Committee presented their report to the members of the board. A very accurate report highlighted the undeniable progress of the Organising Committee in all areas. The sports programme of the Universiade will include some new features such as an alpine skiing team competition (instead of the combined classification), a new parallel slalom snowboard competition (besides the giant slalom) and finally the aerials will be organized in addition to other disciplines of freestyle skiing. The next meeting of the International Technical Committee will be held in October 2015. The President thanked the Almaty delegates and recommended them to continue to consider the 2017 Winter Universiade as a priority without awaiting the outcome of their application for the 2022 Winter Olympics.

With the 2015 Winter Universiade Slovak delegates, from left to right, Peter Hamaj, OC Secretary General, Oleg Matytsin, Dusan Hamar OC Vice-President, Julius Dubovsky, OC vice-President, Claude-Louis Gallien and Eric Saintrond

A tribute was then paid to the organisers of the 2015 Winter Universiade which was first organized on two different sites, Strbske Pleso/Osrblie, Slovakia and Granada, Spain. The Supervision Committee for the WU and the WU department presented the figures of this historical event. It was the longest Winter Universiade in FISU history, i.e. 26 days with only 13 months between the 26th and the 27th Winter Universiade (Trentino2013 -Grenada/StrbskePleso-Osrblie 2015); 2,428 participants; 42 countries; 5 continents; 540 universities; 20 days of competition; 11 sports; 80,000 spectators; 6 new Universiade records.

President Gallien especially thanked the Slovak members present at the meeting. He recalled how important it was for FISU to be able to rely on its active members, even those who can provide support in difficult circumstances.

Signature of the Marketing plan for the 2019 Winter Universiade with Eric Saintrond, FISU Secretary General/CEO, Claude-Louis Gallien, FISU President and Maxim Urazov, General Director of the 2019 Winter Universiade OC

The delegates of the Krasnoyarsk 2019 WU came next. The Winter Universiade department stressed the fact that the Organising Committee of the Krasnoyarsk Games followed the FISU minimum requirements to the letter. Plan, marketing plan, new infrastructure, dressing of the games, things are moving very fast in Krasnoyarsk and 10 sports are planned. Hence, it is clear that student-athletes can enjoy a ‘real winter’ in 2019. The Legacy will also be very important since Krasnoyarsk aims to become a high –level training centre.

The Swiss city of Lucerne, potential candidate to host the 2021 Winter Universiade has made a step forward towards formalizing its candidacy by submitting a letter of intent to the Executive Committee of FISU. Headed by Leonz Eder, in his capacity as representative of the SHSV, the Swiss University Sports Federation (which supports the project), delegates from the city of Lucerne (Urs Hunkeler, CEO of ‘Lucerne Events’, and head of the bid committee for the Winter Universiade in 2021 and Patrick Udvardi, head of sports at the University of Lucerne) presented the Central Switzerland region.

From left to right Patrick Udvardi, head of sports department of the Lucern University, Claude-Louis Gallien, Urs Hunkeler, CEO Lucerne Events, Eric Saintrond and Leonz Eder

FISU Secretary General Eric Saintrond recalled that this application intention was not an official candidacy in full accordance with the terms and regulations of FISU. However, he warmly thanked the representatives of Lucerne and wished them good luck for the rest of the process.

Finally, the World University Championships Department gave an overview of the 2014 WUC season which was exceptional. Note that 2014 was marked by a rise in the level of the championships. Indeed, both from a point of view of participation and professionalism of the Organizing Committees, 2014 will mark a crucial step in the development of the WUCs in the future. The year 2016 is now on track and 2018 is already emerging as the application period will end in September 2015, while the attribution will be made in November 2015. Recall that from the 2016 championships onwards an international volunteer programme has been established.

From left to right M. Stuart Borrie BWF COO, M. Poul-Erik Hoyer, BWF President, and David Cabello, FISU Assessor

To end this session, delegates from the Badminton World Federation (BWF) have applied for badminton as part of the compulsory sports programme of the Summer Universiade. Supported by David Cabello, member of the Executive Committee of FISU and also Chairman of the Badminton Development worldwide; Poul-Erik Hoyer, BWF President and Stuart Borrie, BWF COO have explained at length the benefits to FISU that could arise from the introduction of badminton in the Universiade sports programme.
It should be emphasized that the BWF has fulfilled all the criteria for such entry and was accepted unanimously by the Executive Committee of FISU. The last World University Badminton Championship will take place in 2018 while badminton will appear in the compulsory programme of the 2021 Universiade.

The next meeting of the FISU Executive Committee will be held in Brussels in February 2016.

Yvan Dufour, Editor-in-Chief