EUSA Year in Review

LJUBLJANA – The year 2011 has been very successful for the European University Sports Association in many ways, but perhaps most important and visible in terms of EUSA sporting events and participation at the European Universities Championships.

Sixteen editions of European Universities Championships took place this year acrossEurope, with over 3,600 students participating at EUSA sports events, representing over 470 universities from 37 European countries, breaking the current participation numbers.

EUSA is proud that our events do not just emphasise quantity, but also quality. In this respect we organise conventions for our event organisers, to provide guidelines and tools for successful events; next one being carried out in January 2012.

Overview of the 2011 European Universities Championships

Football – Istanbul,TUR- 19.06.-26.06.

Badminton – Kharkov, UKR – 20.06.-25.06.

Judo – Sarajevo, BIH – 23.06.-26.06.

Rugby 7s – Lille, FRA – 29.06.-02.07.

Volleyball – Kragujevac, SRB – 10.07.-17.07.

Basketball – Cordoba, ESP – 13.07.-20.07.

Beach-Volleyball – Malaga, ESP – 17.07.-22.07.

Futsal – Tampere, FIN – 17.07.-24.07.

Handball – Rijeka, CRO – 17.07.-24.07.

Table Tennis – Madeira, POR – 19.07.-23.07.

Karate – Sarajevo, BIH – 22.07.-25.07.

Rowing – Moscow, RUS – 30.08.-02.09.

Tennis – St. Gallen, SUI – 04.09.-10.09.

Golf – Otocec, SLO – 06.09.-10.09.

Bridge – Warsaw, POL – 19.09.-24.09.

Taekwondo – Braga, POR – 13.12.-15.12.

EUSA member countries were also widely represented at the 2011 Winter and Summer Universiades, respectively held in Erzurum,Turkey and Shenzhen, China. Not only was EUSA the most represented continental organisation, but its members were very successful as well – 31 countries won at least one medal.

In 2009, EUSA celebrated its ten years of existence and following this celebration, a book about the first 10 years of the association’s activities was published. The book, released in 2011 during the General Assembly held inEilat,Israel, gives a tour of EUSA’s journey since 1999. EUSA also published a yearly magazine, encompassing activities carried out in the previous year, accompanied by monthly newsletters.

However, the most exciting things don’t lie in the past but in the future, both near and far. Nearest to us is the staging of the 1st ever European Universities Games that will be held in the Spanish city of Cordoba between July 9 and 24, 2012. The hard working organising committee, with His Majesty, the King Juan Carlos I as the honorary president, is expecting over 2,500 participants, competing in 10 different sports. Thus, it is foreseen to be one of the largest sports events to be held in Europe in 2012 along with the London Olympic Games and the 1st Winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck.

The extended future of European University sport also looks bright as EUSA has already attributed practically all of the 16 European Universities Championships for 2013, as well as the 2nd European Universities Games, to be held in Rotterdam, the Netherlands in 2014.

EUSA also carries out several other projects, among which we can mention especially the Gender Equality Initiative, Volunteer Training Programme and Photo Competition, which are carried out within our organisation in cooperation with our members and EUSA event organisers. For our developing members, special support has been provided, in terms of a development programs and working visits. In cooperation with other international organisations and partners EUSA is currently also an active partner in two projects funded by the European Commission: European Anti-Doping Initiative (EADIn), promoting healthy sports participation without drugs and Prevention of sexualized violence in Sports, promoting an open, secure and sound sporting environment inEurope.

The achievements of EUSA would not be possible without hard work and dedications of EUSA member federations, Executive Committee members, Technical delegates, other committees & working groups, with all their members and also staff. In common effort, we all contribute to the development of University sport in Europe.

Special thanks also go to the International University Sports Federation (FISU) as a partner and Asiana Airlines as the main sponsor of EUSA.

To stay updated about all EUSA activities, visit the website www.eusa.eu, where you can also subscribe to the newsletter or RSS feed or join EUSA social media channels on Facebook and Twitter.

(Source: Andrej Pisl, Communications Manager)