Alongside Russian Olympic Ice Champion Russian Evgeni Plushenko and the music of world-famous Hungarian violinist Edvin Marton, the Lancia Ypsilon recently made a spectacular debut in the glamorous show Kings of Ice during the XXIII Winter Universiade Torino 2007. The occasion of the show's appearance at the Winter Universiade came at the end of last month when Fiat's home city of Turin hosted the student games, the baton of the previous year's Winter Olympic Games being successful handed on.

The Universiade was born in Italy in Turin, conceived by the late Primo Nebiolo who, after assisting in 1957 with the university sport international week in Paris, dreamt of a multisport event for university students along the lines of the Olympic Games. In 1959 Rome - host of the 1960 Olympics - was to have arranged a series of preliminary competitions, but the venues were not ready. Nebiolo thus seized the opportunity to carry out his project, and found in Torino both the facilities - which were already running - and the support of the public bodies, who saw the sport event proposed by Nebiolo as a rehearsal for the 1961 centenary of the Unification of Italy. The Cusi (Italian University Sport Centre), whose President was at the time Nebiolo himself, arranged thus an international sport event that was baptized Universiade. The name itself encompasses several meanings: university, sport and universality; a single word that embraces all the meanings of University sport.

In order to highlight the universality of the event, in the context of prize-giving ceremonies all national anthems are suppressed to be replaced by the Gaudeamus Igitur, the student’s hymn. Furthermore, for the first time - this year - the five star “U” flag made its appearance, as a symbol of Fisu, the University Spor  International Federation. FISU was in fact officially formed in 1949, but its origin goes back to the 1920’s when Frenchman, Jean Petitjean, organised the first ‘World Student Games’ in Paris in May 1923.
 

In 1949 the International University Sports Federation (FISU), born the previous year in Luxembourg, under the impetus of Dr. Paul Schleimer, was officially founded and organised its first International University Sports Weeks. In 1959, FISU and the ISU (International Students Union) agreed to participate in the games organised in Turin, Italy, by CUSI, the Italian Student Sport Association. That year was undoubtedly the one that left the biggest impression on the Italan federation. In fact, the Italian organisers baptised these 1959 games with the name Universiade. They created the flag with a ‘U’ surrounded by stars, which was going to begin its journey around the world, and replaced the national anthems at the medal-awarding ceremonies by the Gaudeamus Igitur.

The Universiade in Turin was a success for the local Executive Committee and for the man who was going to change the future of the university sports movement: Dr. Primo Nebiolo. Ever since this important period, the Universiades continue to attract more and more participants. They went from a total of 1,407 participants in Turin, Italy in 1959 to a total of 7,805 at the 2005 Summer Universiade of Izmir, Turkey. The Winter Universiade experienced the same success, a record of 2,223 participants from 50 countries came to the Winter Universiade in Innsbruck, Austria in 2005. The 2007 edition of the Winter Universiade took place last month in Turin, the birthplace of the event; while the Summer edition will be in Bangkok (Thailand). The 2009 Winter Universiade will be held in Harbin (China), and the Summer one in Belgrade (Serbia-Montenegro).