United States Sports Academy
America's Sports University^®

The United States Sports Academy has always supported groups that promote sport around the world. The Sport Digest is proud to introduce an organization representing 144 national federations dedicated to university sport: the International University Sports Federation, or FISU (Fédération Internationale du Sport Universitaire). FISU was founded in 1949, and its administrative hub is in Brussels, Belgium.

FISU was formed to promote sporting values and encourage sporting practice in harmony with, and complementing, the university spirit. To promote sporting values is to encourage friendship, fraternity, fair play, perseverance, integrity, cooperation, and application among students, who will one day hold responsible positions—even key appointments—in politics, the economy, industry, and culture.

The growth of university sport and its ideals worldwide has led to the growth of the Universiade, the international event FISU organizes for university competitors in a variety of sports. The biennial Universiades, whose host cities change just like those of the Olympiads, provide continuity in university sport. They have also helped the federation to become better known. The men and women who come together through FISU sports—as allies, rivals, perhaps even antagonists—are learning how to collaborate and how to confront every eventuality. And all the while, they are practicing the ethical code enshrined in sporting values.

Strengthening sporting values and sporting practice within the university means strengthening the university spirit of discipline, study, and research. It is FISU’s belief that sport strongly affirms each individual’s and each society’s need for full humanist development. Such development is not only intellectual, it is moral and physical as well.

Staging the summer and winter Universiades every other year and organizing the World University Championships are FISU’s main tasks. Twenty-five World University Championships were played in 2004, attracting 4,845 participants from 186 universities in 90 different countries. In 2006 there were 27 World University Championships with 5,852 athletes from 209 universities in 90 countries. The year 2008 will see 30 World University Championships take place.

Sports and games of the World University Championships are archery, badminton, baseball, beach volleyball, bridge, chess, cross country, cycling, equestrian events, flat-water canoeing, floorball, futsal (a version of soccer), golf, handball, field hockey, karate, match racing (sailing), orienteering, rowing, rugby sevens, sailing, shooting, softball, squash, taekwondo, triathlon, white-water canoeing, waterskiing, weightlifting, woodball, and wrestling.

Each summer and winter Universiade includes a cultural festival along with competition. The events are widely considered second in importance only to the Olympic Games. The summer gatherings feature 12 sports: athletics (track and field), basketball, fencing, football (soccer), gymnastics, judo, swimming, diving, water polo, table tennis, tennis, and volleyball. Each host country selects up to three additional sports for the program. The summer 2007 Universiade in Bangkok, Thailand, included 9,006 participants; in summer 2003 in Daegu, Korea, university athletes from 174 countries joined in the FISU competition.

Each winter Universiade consists of seven sports: alpine skiing, snowboarding, Nordic skiing (ski jump, cross country, and combined), curling, ice hockey, short-track speed skating, figure skating, and biathlon. In addition, each host country may add one to two sports of its choice to the program. Record winter Universiade participation to date is 2,511 athletes in Torino, Italy, in 2007, and 50 represented countries in Innsbruck, Austria, in 2005.

FISU invites student-athletes ages 17–28 to compete; they cannot have been out of college/university, or the equivalent, for more than one year. Any association that belongs to FISU may enter an individual athlete or a team in a Universiade or World University Championship. Entries are accepted from any country eligible for the Olympic Games and from any national federation affiliated with an appropriate international federation.

To encourage university students and sport officials to meet more often than every two years, FISU began to host the “FISU Forum” in years without the Universiades. Each forum is an opportunity for discussion of sport, education, and culture. Host cities for the FISU Forum rotate.

The FISU website is located at www.fisu.net, where a variety of information about the federation can be found. FISU’s schedule of major events for the next several years includes the following: