Sportsmen of Turkmenistan took part in the opening ceremony of the 31st World Summer Universiade in Chengdu, which took place at the stadium in the Dong'anhu Sports Park, the administrative centre of Sichuan Province in southwest China.
Held every two years, this grandiose sports festival gathers the best representatives of the world's university sports. Students between the ages of 17 and 28 can take part in the competition.
The history of university sports began back in 1905, when the first international competitions among students were held in the United States. In 1919, the Confederation of Students was created, under whose auspices the first World Student Games took place in Paris in 1923. They were organized by the French teacher and scientist Jean Ptizhan, an associate of the founder of the modern Olympic movement, Pierre de Coubertin. A year later, a new structure was organized - the International Confederation of Students (ISS), which held competitions among students exclusively in Europe. In 1949, the International University Sports Federation (FISU) was formed to develop and promote sports among students around the world.
The Universiade has been the main student competition for many years and is comparable in scale and significance to the Olympic Games. As a rule, about 60 percent of the participants of the World Universiade compete at the Olympic Games. At the same time, thousands of sportsmen from one and a half hundred countries gather at the Student Games, among which more than 250 sets of medals are played.
The first World Summer Universiade was held in 1959 in Turin, Italy. Then 965 young sportsmen from 45 countries of the world took part in the competition. The current, 31st in a row, Games brought together more than 5,000 student athletes from 120 countries, who will compete for 269 sets of medals in 18 sports: 15 compulsory and three additional ones - rowing, shooting and wushu.
The participation of Turkmen athletes in the world festival of university sports became possible after the adoption in 2012 of our respective sports Federation as full members of the International University Sports Federation (FISU), which now unites 174 national university sports federations, as well as 5 continental associations - European (EUSA), Asian (AUSF), African (FASU), American (FISU America) and Pacific (FISU Oceania).
Turkmenistan, where the state pays great attention to the development of sports, sends a delegation to the World University Games for the fourth time since 2013. It consists of 24 people - 3 officials, 5 coaches and 16 athletes who will compete in four sports - judo (6 athletes), athletics (3), swimming (3) and wushu (4). The flag of Turkmenistan was carried by the swimmer Gurban Hommadov and the representative of the martial art of wushu Aygozel Gurbangeldiyeva at the solemn procession of delegations.
A huge white banner with the FISU emblem was raised on the flagpole installed at the stadium to the sounds of the student anthem Gaudeamus. Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the opening of the Universiade.
Then, after an almost four-year break caused by the pandemic, the fire of the Summer Universiade was lit again.
Remind that the Chinese city of Chengdu received the right to host the World University Games four years ago. The decision to hold them was made on the 1st of March in 2019 at a FISU meeting in Krasnoyarsk, where the 2019 Winter Universiade was held. The Games were originally supposed to take place from 8th to 19th of August in 2021, but were postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, first to 2022 and then to 2023. Despite the fact that the Universiade is taking place two years later, the organizers have retained its original name «Chengdu-2021».
China hosts the World Summer Universiade for the third time after Beijing in 2001 and Shenzhen in 2011. China also once hosted the 2009 Winter Universiade in Harbin.
The current student competitions will be held at 49 sports arenas, 13 of which have been built anew. The «Village of Athletes», where athletes and delegation members live, is located on the campus of Chengdu University. For the first time in the history of the Universiade, the «Village of Athletes» was created on the campus of a higher educational institution.
The World Summer Universiade in Chengdu will end on 8th of August.
