Heads of 23 Delegations from participating countries to the Torino 2025 FISU World University Games visited the future competition sites and inspected the cluster accommodation during a fruitful week in Piemonte.
“The Heads of Delegations meeting is always a key moment leading to FISU World University Games, said FISU President Leonz Eder. It was a real pleasure seing these delegates from all over the world interacting and asking valuable questions to the organisers, making sure they have all the useful information to prepare their teams’s experience. We are not there yet, but this visit has made the Torino 2025 FISU Games a lot more concrete”.
Visits, questions and informative sessions
From 16-20 of September, the Heads of Delegations of 23 of the future participating countries to the Torino gathered in Piemonte to follow presentations from the organising committee, take part in round table questions and answer sessions and more importantly to visit the future competition sites and the facilities for all the members of their delegations.
The meetings kicked off at the Politecnico di Torino, where both representatives from FISU and the Torino 2025 organising committee welcomed everyone and set out the programme of the days to come. The exchanges were as warm and welcoming as the local coffee and the Heads of Delegations from all around the world were already impatient to hit the road.
Meetings and presentations
First on the list, the beautiful Palavela, which will host the short-track speed skating and figure skating competitions and where the future Main Media Centre will be located. In the middle of the ice, the FISU logo already shows the colours of the festivities to come. The group then moved on to visiting the two FISU Games Villages where the student-athletes will be accommodated in Torino.
On day two, the group was devided, with visits in the valley taking the delegates to the ice-rinks of Torre Pellice and Pinerolo (which will both host men’s ice-hockey qualifier matches), as well as accommodation there. The last ice-rink on the menu was Palatazzoli, where the curling as well as women’s ice-hockey and ice-hockey semi-finals and finals will take place.
Valley and city visits
“The visits and exchanges we have had throughout the week really help us plan our future trip, explains Reto Ineichen from Switzerland. Nothing can replace seeing the venues for ourselves and meeting the people from the organising committee face to face.”
The other group travelled to the beautiful mountains of Piemonte. First to Sestriere, that will host the ski mountaineering competition and accommodate more participants, then to Pragelato Plan and Rua, which will see respectively the cross-country skiing (and para-cross-country skiing) and ski orienteering as well as the biathlon competitions. The weather reminded everyone of how high they had travelled, but the hot polenta in the plates and the lovely old streets of Pragelato put smiles on everyone’s faces again, whether they had travelled from Thailand, Turkey, Slovakia or The United States.
Mountain visits
On the Thursday, everyone saw all the locations in Bardonecchia – Melezet, Chesal and Campo Smith – where the snowboarding, alpine skiing, para alpine skiing and freestyle competitions will be held. The enthusiastic explanations by the snow sports specialists, whether from the resort or from the organising committee helped everyone imagine the slopes covered in snow.
Modern and historical
The visit of the colourful FISU Games Village in Bardonecchia also really helped all the Heads of Delegations imagine themselves arriving there next January. The day ended by the visit of the locations for both the opening – the huge and very modern Inalpi Arena – and the closing – the grand and historic Piazzetta Reale in the heart of the city – ceremonies.
It was back to university on the last day and time for everyone to gather some more information, before asking questions, first in the auditorium and then in the much appreciated “round tables” format, where each department welcomes the delegations for more specific details.
The last afternoon was pretty special, as the Heads of Delegations assisted to the ceremony of the lighting of the “Flame of Knowledge” at the Rectorate of the University of Torino, before watching the first torchbearers run in the streets of Torino. The Heads of Delegations meeting ended with the “Let’s IDUS” dinner and party in the honour of the International Day of University Sport.
“I would like to warmly thank our friends at FISU and everyone from the Torino 2025 organising committee for the warm welcome and interesting visits and inspections, said Lina Zhang from China. We always really enjoy the Italian hospitality and it was great to see the mountain clusters and the other facilities. Of course, not everything is ready yet, but things are moving steadily forward.”
Written by Thérèse Courvoisier, pictures by Alessio Bergadano courtesy of the organising committee.
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