FISU Press Officer Christian Pierre, CTI Stavros Douvis, President Gallien, Vice-President Leonz Eder and AIPS President Merlo
SHENZHEN – Newly elected FISU President Claude-Louis Gallien has praised the upcoming 26th Summer Universiade set to commence tomorrow with a highly anticipated spectacular Opening Ceremony.
Speaking to the Chinese, international media and the 61 young journalists from 36 countries in five continents at a press conference this morning, an excited Gallien explained that the games will be the biggest ever in the FISU history.
Lots of questions for the new FISU Pesident“After Beijing in 2001 (summer) and Harbin in 2009 (winter), this is the third time China is hosting the Universiade Games and I can assure you that these games will be spectacular”, emphasized the 68 year old University Professor.
Shenzhen has 60 sports venues, 41 being competitive arenas while the other 19 are training grounds for the over 11, 310 athletes from 143 countries around the globe.
Gallien also expressed sincere openness about the beautiful architecture at these sports venues.
Meanwhile, 11 optional sporting disciplines have been introduced to the global games to bring the number to an incredible 24 different games including aerobics, archery, badminton, beach volleyball, chess, cycling, golf, sailing, shooting, tae-kwon-do and weightlifting. 
Young journalists with Mr. Gallien
All these athletes will be competing for more than 300 medals in their specific disciplines, honored to receive the biggest sports coverage of more than 250 hours live broadcasting on UBS television and 100 hours of highlights on the FISU website.
(Source: Usher Komugisha, FISU Young Reporter)
Claude-Louis Gallien
Leonz Eder
Stavros Douvis
Gianni Merlo
(Photos: Y. Dufour)
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