Find out which animal came out on top in Ekaterinburg 2023 mascot competition

After almost 200 works from students coming from 40 art universities in Russia, the mascot competition for the Ekaterinburg 2023 FISU World University Games Summer. Students drew all 12 characters, which at the first stage had been selected by the participants of the All-Russian vote.

The fox became the most popular hero – the competition participants had sent 36 different options of this character. The top 3 also included 25 sables and 20 lizards.

“I thank all the participants of the competition for their activity,” said Sverdlovsk region governor Evgeny Kuyvashev. “It is gratifying that not only young creative guys from the Sverdlovsk region and Ekaterinburg sent their works. Students from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Astrakhan, Korolev, Vladimir, Kazan, Krasnoyarsk and a dozen other cities of Russia prepared their options of the mascot. This suggests that interest in the sporting mega-event, which will be held in the Urals, is already huge. I am convinced that everyone will follow it.”

The organizers of the competition indicate a new trend – a lot of female characters: a fox, a she-wolf, and a she-bear were among the artistic proposals. Note that in previous years only two Winter Universiades had female mascots – the Universiades in Sofia, Bulgaria in 1985 and in Innsbruck, Austria in 2005.

Another distinguishing feature of most of the works is a thorough and unconventional approach to the character’s image. At the first stage, the residents of Russia determined that the mascot should be provided with certain attributes: it should wear a start number on its chest, along with either glasses or a cap. Students made their characters even brighter: for example, one was dressed in fashionable sneakers, the other stands out not only for clothes but also for jewellery. Members of the jury noted the high level of the works and thoughtfulness of the characters.

“It turned out fresh and creative with the works exceeding our expectations,” said Ekaterinburg 2023 director general Alexander Chernov. “It was a great idea to let students express themselves. I hope that for someone this competition will become an additional motivation for studying, and for someone, it will be the first step towards professional creativity.”

Now the floor is for the jury. Its composition is already known. The chairman of the jury is the Governor of the Sverdlovsk region Evgeny Kuyvashev. The jury also included the Olympic champion in synchronized swimming, Anzhelika Timanina, the actress Ksenia Korneva, the actor and TV presenter Sergey Svetlakov, the winner of the Dakar rally Sergey Katjakin, the general director of the technopark “Universitetsky” Marat Nuriev and the corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Arts Sergey Aynutdinov.

In the near future, the experts will study in details all the works and select three characters-finalists. After that, every resident of Russia will be able to vote for his front-runner. The winner and therefore the future mascot of the 32^nd edition of the FISU World University Games Summer will be the hero that will gain most of the votes.