History
The Universiade, also known as the World University Games or the World Student Games, was inaugurated in 1959, but its roots go back nearly 40 years before that.
In 1923, the Union Nationale des Étudiants Français (UNEF) staged the International Universities Championships in Paris. A year later, the Confédération Internationale des Étudiants (CIE) conducted the Summer Student World Championships in Warsaw.
The CIE held similar championships in 1927 (Rome), 1928 (Paris), 1930 (Darmstadt), 1933 (Turin), 1935 (Budapest), 1937 (Paris), and 1939 (Vienna).
The Fédération Internationale du Sport Universitaire (FISU) began holding a biennial Summer International University Sports Week in 1949.
Primo Nebiolo of Italy, who helped organize the 1957 event in Paris, saw it as the foundation for a kind of Olympics for university students from around the world. So he organized the first Universiade, staged in 1959 at Torino (Turin), Italy. About 1,400 athletes from 43 countries took part, much greater participation than at any of the previous FISU events. The numbers have gone up with virtually every Universiade, reaching a high of 7,805 participants in 2005.
The Universiade was held in odd-numbered years from 1959 through 1967. Then there was a three-year hiatus to 1970 and another to 1973. Since then, the games have again been held biennially. The 1975 Universiade was replaced by a "World University Championships in Athletics," including only track and field events.
The United States didn't begin participating until 1965. Two years later, the United States Collegiate Sports Council (USCSC) became the country's official representative to the FISU). The USSC became known as the United States International University Sports Federation (US-IUSF) in 2005.
The Winter Universiade was first held in 1960 at Zell-Am-See, Austria. Only 98 athletes competed, but that number grew to 1,449 from 50 countries by the 2005 Winter Universiade at Innsbruck.
There are 13 standard sports in the Summer Universiade and seven in the Winter Universiade.
Host Cities
Summer
| Year | Venue |
|---|---|
| 1959 | Turin, Italy |
| 1961 | Sofia, Bulgaria |
| 1963 | Pôrto Alegre, Brazil |
| 1965 | Budapest, Hungary |
| 1967 | Tokyo, Japan |
| 1970 | Turin, Italy |
| 1973 | Moscow, Soviet Union |
| 1975 | Rome, Italy |
| 1977 | Sofia, Bulgaria |
| 1979 | Mexico City, Mexico |
| 1981 | Bucharest, Romania |
| 1983 | Edmonton, Canada |
| 1985 | Kobe, Japan |
| 1987 | Zagreb, Yugoslavia |
| 1989 | Duisburg, Federal Republic of Germany |
| 1991 | Sheffield, Great Britain |
| 1993 | Buffalo, NY, United States |
| 1995 | Fukuoka, Japan |
| 1997 | Catania, Italy |
| 1999 | Palma de Mallorca, Spain |
| 2001 | Beijing, China |
| 2003 | Daegu, South Korea |
| 2005 | Izmir, Turkey |
| 2007 | Bangkok, Thailand |
Winter
| Year | Venue |
|---|---|
| 1960 | Chamonix, France |
| 1962 | Villars, Switzerland |
| 1964 | Spindleruv Mlyn, Czechoslovakia |
| 1966 | Sestriere, Italy |
| 1968 | Innsbruck, Austria |
| 1970 | Rovaniemi, Finland |
| 1972 | Lake Placid, USA |
| 1975 | Livigno, Italy |
| 1978 | Spindleruv Mlyn, Czechoslovakia |
| 1981 | Jaca, Spain |
| 1983 | Sofia, Bulgaria |
| 1985 | Belluno, Italy |
| 1987 | Strbske Pleso, Czechoslovakia |
| 1989 | Sofia, Bulgaria |
| 1991 | Sapporo, Japan |
| 1993 | Zakopane, Poland |
| 1995 | Jaca, Spain |
| 1997 | Chonju-Muju, Korea |
| 1999 | Poprad-Tatry, Slovakia |
| 2001 | Zakopane, Poland |
| 2003 | Tarvisio, Italy |
| 2005 | Innsbruck, Austria |
| 2007 | Torino, Italy |
Index to Summer Medal Winners
Index to Winter Medal Winners
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