History and Foundation

The FISU emblem was inspired by the 'U' from University
and accompanied by five stars that symbolize participating countries from 5 continents.

The 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.), which held a congress in Warsaw where several delegations took part and the world university sports movement was launched.

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 organized 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. The Universiade has taken its journey since that year.

The 2005 and 2007 editions of the Summer Universiade have been attributed respectively to the cities of Izmir (Turkey) and Bangkok (Thailand). The 2005 Winter Universiade will be held in Innsbruck/Seefeld (Austria) and the 2007 edition has been attributed to CUSI, the national university sports organization of Italy, who will organize it in Torino, the birthplace of the Universiade.

FISU supports these competitions which give student-athletes the opportunity to come together from all around the world in a spirit of understanding and peace so that they can aim towards obtaining results at a high technical level.

More information is presented on www.fisu.net