FISU Executive Committee: Day 2 Full of Highlights

Day 2 of meetings focused on upcoming Universiades and World University Championships, and ended with the signing of two Memorandums of Understanding

President Matytsin (centre) with Continental EC members Douton Martin (R) of Oceania and Alim Maluf Neto of Brazil 

 

TAIPEI CITY – Leaders of the university sport movement were back at the table for a series of reports, projects and discussion on second and final day of FISU Executive Committee meetings on the island of Taiwan Wednesday.

 

 

Two days of the General Assembly meetings remain in the lead-up into the Taipei Summer Universiade 2017 that officially kicks off with Saturday evening’s Opening Ceremonies in Taipei Arena.

 

 

KRASNOYARSK WINTER UNIVERSIADE 2019 PROGRESS REPORT

 

 

With 563 days until the Opening Ceremony to the Winter Universiade in Siberia’s winter sports capital, Krasnoyarsk 2019’s delegation reported on the progress made in the city.

 

The FISU Executive Committee Meeting in its second day as the Krasnoyarsk 2019 team addressed the Executive Committee 

The director focused the meeting on the key events and functional areas under progress yet last winter was one of intrigue and wonder. For instance, Krasnoyarsk hosted its first test event, the world ski orienteering championships.

 

 

A number of important documents were developed and approved for Krasnoyarsk, updated Master Plan and Legacy programme among them. The Organising Committee has been successful with the insurance programme development in collaboration with Marsh company (the one recommended by FISU).

 

 

The Krasnoyarsk team was particularly active on the acquisition of sports management knowledge front, with a large contingent taking advantage of FISU’s Observers’ Programme in Almaty, just as they will do here in Taipei.

  

The only thing that cannot be repeated for Krasnoyarsk this time is that they will not be able to receive the FISU Flag again as it was already given to the Mayor of Krasnoyarsk, Mr. Edkham Akbulatov, during the Closing Ceremony in Almaty this February.

 

SUMMER UNIVERSIADE NAPOLI 2019 PROGRESS REPORT

From Krasnoyarsk #realwinter campaign and the progress happening in Siberia for the winter edition of the Universiade, the summer games progress report moved to the southern Italian city of Napoli.

 

 

Four Napoli team members were in Taipei for the meetings and to watch how the Taipei event organisers delivered the Universiade.

 

 

 The Napoli 2019 team in Taipei with Gianluca Basile (far left) and his translater, then Lorenzo Lentini (2nd from right) and Annapaola Voto (far right).

 

The delegation from Napoli included the president of CUSI (Italian University Sports Centre), Lorenzo Lentini, and the Napoli 2019’s director general, Gianluca Basile.

 

 

With cruise ships in the main city port in downtown Napoli planned as the Summer Universiade Athletes’ Village in 2019; the choice of the Campania region should make for a memorable event, particularly for the athletes.

 

 

Situated near the Almalfi Coast, the Napoli port is a main hub to nearby destinations such as Capri. Who knows, maybe the use of cruise ships to house athletes, coaches and officials at major multisport events might become a trend thanks to Stazione Marittima.

 

 

The Napoli group began by delving into their employment-hiring plan. The team announced the acquisition of Roberto Outeirino as the Universiade director for sports and operations.

 

 

The Napoli organisers announced that 30 employees have already been recruited with the assistance of CONI (Italian National Olympic Committee) and that they were in the recruitment phase for 15 other high-level, functional event-delivery positions.

 

 

For the events, Napoli plans on using 61 venues in total, with 37 for in-competition and 24 as training venues. On non-event days, most of these competition venues will serve as training grounds. As Napoli is a large, bustling city with traffic concerns, most individual sport venues are located in Naples, with team sports also taking place outside the heart of the city.

 

 

With Rome earlier withdrawing their bid to bring the Summer Olympics back in 2024, the Roman OC had given their sincere and public support for the people of Campania to host a successful and memorable Universiade in their region.

 

 

A CONTENDER TO HOST WINTER UNIVERSIADE 2023 ENTERS THE ARENA

 

 

Having recently completed their initial hurdles of bidding phase, the hopeful organising committee from the Adirondack region of New York looks to bring the Universiade back to upstate New York for the third time.

 

 Lake Placid leaders presenting their vision for bringing the Winter Universiade back to the Adirondack Region of America

Buffalo, New York hosted the summer event in 1993, and Lake Placid parlayed the 1972 Winter Universiade in 1972 into a successful return of the Olympic flame for the 1980 Winter Olympic Games.

 

 

The Lake Placid contingent was a distinguished crew comprised of New York State Senator Betsy Little; Lake Placid’s president of Tourism, Jeff McKenna; New York state Olympic Regional Development Authority’s Jeff Byrne; Assistant Secretary Economic Development New York State Governor’s Office, Brendan Hughes; and Tait Plowden-Wordlaw, who used to work in the ski manufacturing market before returning home to help run an annual four-day winter multisport event in Lake Placid.

 

James McKenna gave out hats to the EC Members with the 1972 Lake Placid Winter Universiade logo  

The New Yorkers successfully presented their vision of a concentrated Universiade inside a compact downtown area where car traffic on Main Street would give way to athletes strolling amongst a cluster of cottages, restaurants and hotels that would serve as their Athletes’ Village.

 

 

Since last hosting the Universiade in 1972 and the Olympics in 1980, Lake Placid – known as America’s first winter getaway destination – has hosted many world championships and world cups in winter sports since.

 

 

With 12 universities in the somewhat rural Lake Placid region, the area has a definite small-town college feel.

 

 

“It is the most beautiful part of the state,” Senator Little said. “My colleagues are supportive of our bid here. Thank you for the opportunity to show you a little bit more about Lake Placid and the Adirondack region.”

 

 

After the presentation, President Matytsin said, “I am very impressed that you have such a professional team and such high-ranking officials”

 

 

 

WORLD UNIVERSITY CHAMPS TEAM REPORTS TO FISU EXEC

 

 

The World University Championships (WUC) department made a succinct presentation on the upcoming look of the 2018 WUC season. With 35 single-sport events on the biennial calendar, the small team looks like it has its work cut out for it during the department’s most ambitious year ever.

 

The WUC Presentation team, from left: Paulo Ferreira, Marian Dymalsk (CTI WUC Chair), Fernando Parente (CTI WUC Vice-Chair), Julien Carrell and Pauline Hamonic (not pictured) 

The WUC team spoke about 19 inspection visits they had already had with their event hosts; the group has 16 to go for the year.

 

 

Keeping sporting integrity at the forefront of everything FISU does, the WUC’s 2018 anti-doping plan has been updated and approved by FISU Medical Committee.

 

 

For 2020 World University Championship events, bidding will close in late September. Looking to make the admin side of sports as simple as possible for member federations, FISU opened the FISU Online Accreditation in July; a new, more user-friendly system.

 

 

Three weeks after the FISU’s flame gets extinguished in Taipei, the FISU flag will play high for the third edition of the 3×3 World University League Finals in Xiamen, China.

 

 

The 3×3 World University League is a collaboration with FIBA, which helps bridge the gap from the grass roots to FIBA’s professional 3×3 league with a larger group of high-performance players in basketball’s smaller team format.

 

 

With 16 men’s and 16 women’s teams now making up the final, the WUC team was particularly proud of how their events work to promote gender equality in sport.

 

 

“Everything is on track and everything is in place,” Ferreira said. “I’m very excited about this one.”

 

 

FISU SPECIAL EVENTS

 

 

FISU Committee for the Development of University Sport member Azat Kadyrov presented on the FISU Volunteer Leaders Academy that begin in July in Kazan, Russia.

 FISU Committee Member Azat Kadyrov presenting on the successful launch of the FISU Volunteer Leaders Academy

Established in close cooperation between FISU and the Republic of Tatarstan, the Academy brought together 110 university-aged sports leaders for a weeklong set of courses and content focused on successfully delivering major competitions such as the Universiade so that these events leave a lasting legacy. Even the Academy itself has its start to thank due to the legacy work that came out of Kazan Summer Universiade in 2013, with event having taking place on the Kazan Universiade Village.

 

 

In Taipei, five standout performers from the Academy earned weeklong English immersion university courses in Cambridge, USA, while another five attendees earned the right to intern with FISU’s Transfer of Knowledge team for two weeks during the Taipei Summer Universiade.

 

 

MEMORANDUMS OF UNDERSTANDINGS SIGNED

 

President Matytsin shakes hands after signing the Memorandums of Understanding with Alim Maluf Neto  

The meetings concluded with the signing of Memorandums of Understanding between FISU and the Continental University Sports Federations. President Matytsin signed mutual contracts with Doutlon Martin (AUS), the continental FISU Oceania representative, and with Alim Maluf Neto (BRA), the representative for the Americas.

 

 

WHAT’S UP NEXT

 

 

Over the next two days, FISU will have their General Assembly in Taipei as the lead-in to the Summer Universiade.

 

 

After this, a next important meeting for the FISU team is the Steering Committee meeting from the 22-24 November in Senegal. The next FISU Executive Committee meeting follows that is set to take place 2-3 March in Lausanne, Switzerland.