Pin Trading at the Universiade stays a Hit

Paula SchmidlGWANGJU – 28^th Summer Universiade has kicked off already and is in full swing. Various sporting events are being conducted and many athletes from all around the world have already shown their game spirit. It is good to see people who are competing against each other exchanging souvenirs. “It’s not only a pin, its love that we share with each other and a memory we cherish forever”, says one of the young athletes from Tunisia, who happens to be very excited about the upcoming days.

Gwangju Summer Universiade is an event, where 144 countries have brought their delegations to Gwangju city to compete. This event is not only competition but the spirit that surrounds the Universiade is the cultural mix, the meeting of people from all over the world to share the passion of sport.

However, thousands of people who have gathered in Gwangju to share the passion of sports want to return home with victory, good memories of the days spent here and lifelong friendships with the people they will meet in these upcoming days.

Paula Schmidl, an athlete and a student of the University of Linz (AUT), said that so far in last two days she has collected around 50 pins from different athletes representing different countries and is looking forward to collect more in the upcoming days. She explains that the pins that she has collected will help her to remember about the memories of this Universiade and the people she has met “these pins bring the wonderful memories that I have with these amazing people in a split of a second.” For her she said, this international exchange of pins was more like a possibility of returning back to their home with the original memory of the event. Schmidl also said that she had brought over 200 pins and badges with her for her fellow athletes and now she wishes she had more “now that I think of the spirts and changing of pins, I wish had brought more badges so I could distribute them to more people.”

The organizers and volunteers who are working hard and making sure that everything falls in the right place and are in contact with hundreds of athletes and visitors on a daily basis are equally receiving the pins and the ribbons of their accreditation cards are decorated with flags and pins of various countries. A volunteer from Korea said that it was her first big event and the love of people has blown her off “when we see the love of these people who have come so far to Gwangju, and when we receive these souvenirs, it pays off for the hard work we have been doing to host this big event.”

Dania Abdullah (PAK), FISU Young Reporter