The countdown to Torino 2025 has officially begun. Today the international delegation ended the inspection visit of the venues that in less than three years will host the World University Games Winter, the event born under the Mole with the name of Universiade thanks to the vision of the then president of the University Sports Center of Turin Primo Nebiolo.
Riccardo D’Elicio, who also holds the role of CEO of the Torino 2025 Organizing Committee, opened the week’s work in the hall named after the unforgettable sports manager and brought greetings from the CUSI: “We have chosen this iconic place to welcome you and let you breathe our and your history, because between FISU and Turin there is an inseparable bond thanks to a historical figure for international sport such as Primo Nebiolo. Everything started in this city and the Organizing Committees of each World University Games come to us to light the Flame of Knowledge for their Games, as Lake Placid will do in September for the 2023 winter event. In that occasion, we will go to the United States to pick up the FISU flag because it will be our turn again. The 2025 organising committee has put the wheels in motion with the aim of creating an event both environmental and economic sustainable, leaving a legacy for the university students of tomorrow”.
Italy will be the protagonist for the twelfth time between Summer Games (5) and Winter Games (7) and it will be the fifth time that a World University event will be held in Piedmont, the third in the winter. Turin will be back at the center of the university sports universe 18 years after hosting the winter edition in 2007. This morning, the Organizing Committee received the final indications from the FISU from the individual delegates of the various sports disciplines, after they had visited the competition sites of Turin (Palavela and PalaTazzoli), Bardonecchia, Pragelato, Torre Pellice and Pinerolo in the past few days.
This is the comment of the FISU Games Winter Director, Milan Augustin: “We are always happy to come here to Turin, the city where basically the the international university sports movement has developped. We have many old friends here and there is a heritage of the events that have been held in the past. We came here with the technical staff and the chairpersons for every sport and it’s the best way to start the planning for the 2025 FISU World University Games.”
The XXXII winter edition will be held in 5 locations in Piedmont, reinforcing the claim already announced at the beginning of 2022: Piedmont land of sport, to underline the sporting vocation of the entire territory.
Augustin, who boasts a past as an athlete of international stature in biathlon, adds: “In these days, we spread up to visit the single venues where the different sports will be played and they have met relevant people who will be responsible on site from now until 2025. It was important to share our knowledge and experiences to have successful Games in 2025. This is the first milestone to jump into the future at a time in which all sports are evolving tremendously and also in view of the Milan Cortina 2026 Olympics, with which important synergies can be developed so as to have staff prepared for the biggest international events. Torino 2025 will be a great event both from a technical point of view and from the training point of view, because FISU focuses a lot on the educational aspect, so we will have to work as brothers with the University of Turin, the Polytechnic and the University of Eastern Piedmont to involve the entire student community”.
Leading the operational team of Torino 2025 in these days has been Sport Director and Venues Managment Ubaldo Prucker, a character with a curriculum of the highest level. The polyedric South Tyrolean, originally from Val Gardena, has collaborated with CONI, IBU, FISI and FISG, in addition to a thirty-year career as biathlon trainer in Italy and abroad (the last experience was with Japan). On the occasion of big events, his expertise was fundamental both during the 2006 Turin Olympics and the Winter Universiade organized by CUS the following year.
These are Prucker‘s words: “I’m really honored to be able to say that we are on the right track towards the next Games in 2025 and I’m happy to be back in Turin after the experiences of the 2006 Olympics and the 2007 Universiade. I was surprised by the amount of positive comments we received from the FISU technical delegates, which helped us understand what can be improved over the years. There are small adjustments or changes to be made, also because so many years have passed since the 2007 Universiade.”
