World Student Games

a major international athletic competition. The World Student Games were first organized in 1924 in Warsaw by the French sports figure J. Petejean. Subsequent competitions were held in Rome (1927), Dortmund (1930), Turin (1933), Paris (1937), and Monte Carlo (1939).

Since the end of World War II (1939–45), the games have been conducted under the auspices of the World Festivals of Youth and Students, under the leadership of the International Union of Students (IUS). In 1949 a number of European countries founded the International University Sports Federation (FISU), which conducted its own games, called FISU Weeks, which were held together with the student games of the youth festivals. In 1957 a single series of World Student Games was held once again. The regulations of the World Student Games correspond to the spirit of the Olympic movement. The slogan of the games is “Science, sport, friendship, peace.”

The winter games are held every even year, and the summer games every odd year. From 1957 to 1975 the summer games were held in Paris, Turin (twice), Sofia, Porto Alegre (Brazil), Budapest, Tokyo, Moscow, and Rome. At the 1973 Moscow games, participants included athletes from 72 countries representing the five continents. The winter games have been held in Zakopane (Poland), Chamonix (France), Villars-le-Terrior (Switzerland), Pardubice (Czechoslovakia), Turin, Innsbruck (Austria), Rovaniemi (Finland), Lake Placid (USA), and Livigno (Italy).

The summer games consist of competitions in track and field, swimming, gymnastics, fencing, diving, water polo, volleyball, basketball, tennis, and one other sport chosen by the host country. The winter games include cross-country and downhill skiing, ski jumping, the Nordic combination, figure skating, speed skating, and ice hockey.

In the period 1957–75, Soviet athletes won 247 gold medals in the games, including 68 medals in the games held in Moscow.

Champions of the World Student Games include the Soviet track and field athletes I. A. Ter-Ovanesian (three-time champion), V. F. Borzov, V. N. Brumel’ (two-time champion), N. V. Chizhova (two-time champion), N. V. Avilov, la. V. Lusis, F. G. Mel’nik, V. D. Saneev, and A. S. Spiridonov; the swimmers N. I. Pankin and G. N. Stepanova (Prozumenshchikova); and the gymnast N. E. Andrianov.