The numbers behind FISU’s progress towards gender equality

The International University Sports Federation is on a mission to level the playing field for everyone, and our push for gender equality, one of the objectives of the FISU Global Strategy 2027, is starting to show. Looking at how many men and women participate in FISU events, it is clear that things have come a long way, especially in recent years.

Today, gender equality is part of all of FISU’s programme’s minimum requirements. Whether it is for the Step Up Programme or the Young Reporters Programme for example, when people are selected to present a topic on stage or to take part to a webinar, the aim is always to chose an equal number of women and men. But this has not always been the case.

If we zoom out and take a look at how things have changed since FISU first kicked off its World University Games (Summer in 1959 and Winter in 1960) and the World University Championships (starting in 1986), the trend is pretty clear: the gender gap is closing.

Fast forward to recent years, and we are seeing near-parity between male and female athletes. For example, at the recent Torino 2025 FISU Games, 56% of the 1602 athletes were male, and 44% were female. That is almost identical to the 55%-45% split seen in Chengdu at the 2023 Summer Games, which featured over 5087 athletes. Even the World University Championships follow a similar trend, with 53% men and 47% women in 2024.

62% of women at Zagreb 2025 FISU World Forum

Now, the journey has not been without its bumps. Back in the day, men definitely dominated, with 62% male participation at Summer Games, 64% at Winter Games, and 63% at the Championships. But that is changing.

Women’s participation is especially strong when we look at FISU’s educational events. Between 2012 and 2024, female students made up 48% of participants at the FISU World Forum, with the latest edition in Zagreb in August 2024 seeing 62% women in attendance. The trend continues with FISU’s mentoring programme, the “Springboard Programme”, where 62% of participants were women, with 69% as mentees, in the first two years of the programme’s existence.

A considerable increase

But it’s not all sunshine and rainbows yet. The staff at the sports events, especially coaches, doctors, physiotherapists and other officials, are still mostly men. At the last Summer and Winter Games, around 74% of the officials were male.

When it comes to FISU’s decision-making committees, there is still work to do. Of the 23 members on the Executive Committee, 7 are women and 3 of the 5 Vice-Presidents are female. That is already a lot better than in the past. In other committees, women make up about 35% of the members (37 out of a total of 105), which is a step forward but still far from equal.

However, this proportion has increased compared to previous committee terms and is higher than that of most committees in other international sports organisations (Global Observatory for Gender Equality & Sport, 2025).

FISU has been making real strides with its permanent Gender Equality Committee, which has been doing some amazing work raising awareness and pushing for change. Thanks to their efforts, we have seen more and more initiatives and events aimed at improving gender equality. These include programmes like the FISU Gender Equality Awards and Gender Equality webinars. The road to true equality is still ahead, but FISU is definitely on the right track, and there is a lot of momentum behind our efforts.