14 January 2025 – The first gold medal of the XXXII FISU World University Games Winter was given away in Pragelato Rua, where the Ukrainian student athlete Bohdan Borkovskyi won with a brilliant performance in the Men’s Biathlon Short Individual 15 km. Borkovskyi finished 25.5 seconds ahead of Patrik Kuuttinen (FIN), who took silver. Petr Hak (CZE) claimed bronze. “I felt strong and content inside, which allowed me to finish so well,” said Borkovskyi, reinforcing the message of “mens sana in corpore sano”, a balance between body and mind. The women’s short individual biathlon 12.5 km was led by Frenchwoman Noemie Remmonay who, despite missing two shots, finished first 38 seconds ahead of Amelia Liszka (POL). The bronze medal went to Daryna Chalyk (UKR).
The focus then shifted to Bardonecchia for the women’s Moguls competitions, where Ukraine’s Anastassiya Gorodko won the gold medal with a total of 79.79 points, just 3.5 points ahead of Haruka Nakao (JPN). The bronze medal went to Hanna Weese (GER) who finished with 75.04 points. Akseli Ahvenainen (FIN) led the men’s field with 81.68 points, followed by Shugo Kanno (JPN) and Quinn Dawson (CAN). France won its second gold medal in Bardonecchia thanks to the incredible performance of Camille Poulat in the women’s snowboard cross race, followed by her team-mate Margaux Herpin and the Italian Marika Savoldelli. Quentin Sodogas (FRA) topped the men’s snowboard cross podium in front of Bernat Ribera Violan (ESP) and Umito Joshua Kirchwehm (GER) in second and third respectively.
Last but not least, Palatazzoli hosted the mixed double gold medal curling match, where Great Britain defeated Germany 10-8. Canada took their place on the podium with a 9-3 win in the semi-finals, eliminating Italy despite their best efforts and a convincing performance.
That’s all for today’s medal competitions, but not for today’s FISU Games. It was another day of qualification rounds for ice hockey: Torino’s Palatazzoli hosted the women’s matches Czech Republic vs Kazakhstan (11-1) and United States vs Japan (0-5). In the men’s preliminaries, the United States beat Japan (5-1) and Ukraine defeated Poland (8-2) in Torre Pellice. Finally, in Pinerolo, Kazakhstan and the Czech Republic beat respectively Korea (7-1) and Sweden (3-2). Stay tuned for the hockey awards ceremony on 20 January, and in the meantime enjoy the Torino 2025 World University Games!