Last updated: September 2007
The World University Games: The info

This year’s World University Games were held in Thailand from the 8th-18th August. The opening ceremony took place at the National Stadium in the capital of Bangkok.

British Fencer Alexander O’Connell was the lucky student to carry the flag for Team GBR. The student from Cambridge University carried the flag at a spectacular ceremony that was more than fit to open the Games. The opening ceremony also saw the New Zealand athletes perform the intimidating haka, a Maori traditional dance.

The event is also known as the Universiade and 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. This year’s competition was the 24th World University Games and it involved 10,000 athletes and officials from 150 nations all over the world taking part. At present, the Universiade is organised during summer and winter every two years.

The Summer Universiade consists of 12 compulsory sports (Athletics - Basketball - Fencing - Football - Gymnastics - Judo - Swimming - Diving - Water Polo - Table Tennis - Tennis - Volleyball) and up to three optional sports chosen by the host country. The record figures are 7,805 participants in Izmir, Turkey in 2005 and 174 countries in Daegu, Korea in 2003.

The people of Thailand saw it as such an honour for their country to become a host of the 24th World University Games 2007. Hence, the organisers had put a lot of preparation into the event and for accommodating all participants.

The Games are very much a mirror image of the Olympics. Just like professionals, students are placed in an athlete’s village. The venues included the Thammasat University situated away from the city centre, the airport, and the training and competition venues such as the Rajamangala Stadium, which was also the venue for the opening and closing ceremonies.

The Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Thailand said, “Participation in the Universiade Bangkok 2007 will not only provide you with ample opportunities to demonstrate excellence in athletic competition, it will also serve as a venue to build friendships with colleagues from around the world. In so doing, you will be helping to promote greater understanding among peoples and nations, a critical component to global peace.”

The hosts were rewarded for their enthusiasm and preparation when they beat their target of 10 gold medals as they took home 12 gold, 7 silver and 8 bronze; finishing in 6th place in the medals table.

The objective of the Games is mainly to provide opportunities for university students from all over the world, especially athletes aged 17-28, to compete equally in the Games with their powerful spirit, devotion and goodwill. Moreover athletes can develop and enhance their potential to excel themselves in the Games.

The team from Great Britain was represented across 14 sports at the event and has named its largest ever delegation, with a total of 235 athletes and staff in Bangkok. They took part in 14 sporting events which were; athletics, badminton, diving, fencing, football (men & women) golf, gymnastics, judo, shooting, swimming, taekwondo, table tennis, tennis and water polo.

A Brief History of the Games
Frenchman Jean Petitjean organized the first World Student Games in Paris in May 1923 and the following year saw the birth of the International Confederation of Students (I.C.S) in Warsaw.

The Second World War interrupted many great sporting events, but when peace was restored, France re-launched the World University Games though the Games only gathered a few western delegations due to Cold War tensions. In 1949, the International University Sports Federation (FISU) was born and a new departure was made in 1957 when the French Federation organised a World University Sports Championship which brought together students from Eastern and Western blocks. Two years later, in 1959, the first games with the name Universiade were held in Turin, Italy.

by Ralph Shepherd