2013 Summer Universiade

The 2013, the Summer Universiade will be held in Kazan, Russia from 6-17 July, 2013.  The compulsory sports to be contested are athletics, basketball, fencing, football, gymnastics – artistic and rhythmic, swimming, diving, judo, water polo, table tennis, tennis, volleyball.  The proposed optional sports include: badminton, beach volleyball, belt wrestling, boxing, chess, canoe sprint, field hockey, rugby 7's, sambo, sport shooting, synchronised swimming, rowing, weightlifting, wrestling.

More information on the 27th Summer Universiade can be found on the official website.

What is the universiade?

The universiade is an international sporting and cultural festival which is staged every two years in a different city and which is second in importance only to the Olympic Games. Governed by the International University Sports Federation (FISU), the aim of the universiade is to promote international peace and cultural exchange among young people through sport.

The word universiade comes from university and Olympiad and means Olympic Games for students. The universiade is second in importance only to the Olympic Games on a true multi-sport international scale.

Numerous Olympic Games athletes have participated at universiades and the events share much in common - the communal village, a games mascot, sporting conferences and cultural festivals that take place while the games are in progress. The protocol systems for the Olympics and universiades are similar with both events also sharing an opening and closing ceremony.

The summer universiade consists of 12 compulsory sports (athletics, basketball, fencing, football, gymnastics, judo, swimming, diving, water polo, table tennis, tennis and volleyball) and each host is permitted to also choose a number of optional sports for the program.

History of the universiade

The first universiade took place in 1923 when a few countries held the University Sports Week in Paris. Until the beginning of the Second World War the universiades were staged under the auspices of the Confederation Internationale des Etudiants (CIE). After the war, an international sports body called Union Internationale des Etudiants (UIE) emerged to rival CIE and in 1948 the Federation International du Sport Universitaire (FISU) was formed.

Over the next decade the two bodies staged rival competitions however after the success of the 1958 Games in Paris when FISU and UIE athletes competed together, the first official universiade was held in Turin the following year.

In 1960 the two organisations were united under the FISU flag and since then the universiades have developed in size and stature. Ever since this important period, the universiades have continued to attract more and more participants each cycle. From a total of 1,407 participants in Turin, Italy in 1959 to record figures of 9,006 participants in Bangkok, Thailand in 2007 and 174 countries in Daegu, Korea in 2003, the universiade movement has gone from strength to strength. The Summer Universiade is the world's second largest international athletic event, double the size of the Winter Olympics and bigger than the Commonwealth Games.

Australia at the universiade

Australia first competed at a Summer Universiade in Tokyo, Japan in 1967 and been involved in every event since that year excluding 1975 in Rome, Italy. During that time Australian athletes have amassed a total of 102 (30 gold, 30 silver and 42 bronze) medals achieving a highest ever medal tally position of 11th in Belgrade, Serbia in 2009. A full list of Australian medals can be viewed below.