Sport participation rise across Kazakhstan already a legacy from the Almaty 2017 Winter Universiade

PAVLODAR, KAZAKHSTAN – The legacy of hosting a Universiade for host city and county take on a variety of forms, including urban infrastructure and national and international tourism profile.

On the sporting side, Winter and Summer Universiade hosts benefit from enhanced sports facilities, strengthened sports organisations and—most importantly—growth in grassroots sport participation. 

In just over the year since Winter Universaide 2017, the host city of Almaty and country of Kazakhstan has reported strong gains in sport participation, with student sport having gained increased popularity among the Kazak youth.

The most recent case in point on this came during the 1-11^th of March during Kazakhstan’s 7^th national university sport games. Held in the city of Pavlodar and organized by Kazakhstan Student Sports Federation with the direct support of the Kazakhstan Ministry of Education and Sciences and National Scientific and Practical Center for Physical Culture assistance, this event saw a record number of participants as more than 1500 students from 40 Kazakhstan universities took part.                 

                                                                                         

For the first time in the history of the Universiade, the winter edition was held in Northern Kazakhstan in 2017. The 2018 national university student games carried on this spriit as the event’s opening ceremony took place on March, 2 at the largest sports facility in the Astana Ice Palace.

The lighting of the games-time flame entrusted Anna Shevchenko, an Almaty 2017 Winter Universiade winner.

 Anna Shevchenko lighting the flame to officially kick off the event

At the 7^th winter university sports games, participants competed in ten sports: Biathlon, Cross-Country Skiing, Ski Orienteering, Futsal, Kazakh Wrestling, Power Lifting, Weightlifting, Arm Wrestling, 3×3 Basketball, and Winter Presidential All-Around. All athletes showed high sports results.

 A host of traditional sports events were also infused with those best known to Kazakhstan

The event event had its design and logo. Also noteworthy was the playing of the student anthem “Gaudeamus” during the awarding ceremonies. Next year, the next national Summer Universiade of Kazakhstan will be held in May, in 2019 in Western part of Kazakhstan Aktobe city. For this occasion, we invite all FISU members to visit Kazakhstan and to be guests at the national Universiade.

Big air and big memories from the Almaty 2017 Winter Universiade