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in the next year is envisioned as
a new beginning for the young
university student-athletes
they aspire to engage and
impact. They believe that being
involved in the EUG can enhance
students’ preparation for a
successful life in a more holistic
manner – this is also the reason
for choosing the slogan “More
than games – this is the start of
your career.”
Both, Debrecen and Miskolc,
stand as sports-centric cities.
With top-notch infrastructure,
sports facilities, and an
unwavering commitment to
athletics, both cities are well-
equipped to jointly host the
European Universities Games.
These two cities have a great
amount of history and rivalry
with each other, but join efforts
for the thing they are both
outstanding at: sports. They
also showed their capability
of hosting, as this summer of
2023 in July they gave home
to the European Universities
Championship, which has
served as an official test for
next year’s events. It allowed
Debrecen to host the European
Universities Championship in
3x3 Basketball and Miskolc to
host the European Universities
Championships in Badminton
and Water Polo. These events
gave us a comprehensive
picture and feedback regarding
cooperation and venues and also
filled us with hope, excitement
and motivation regarding the
organization of EUG2024.
As the slogan says – “More
than games”, Hungary tries
to approach a more culturally
beneficial part of this event,
to enrich the experience of the
participants, as both Debrecen
and Miskolc are historically and
educationally prominent, two
important cultural centres of the
country. We aimed to capture
the attention of Hungarian
students from January 12-14 at
the country’s annual Education
Expo in Budapest, where
we had a booth and even a
roundtable discussion about
sport, learning and moving on
and the upcoming European and
world events in Hungary: the
presence of professional sport
in the world. Miskolc hosted
a similar event on April 28,
called KarrierFeszt where they
promoted not just the university
sports community but the
upcoming sports events in 2024.
The Hungarian city of Debrecen
accommodated a two-day
Supervision Commission
Meeting on 23-24 November
2023, as the local organisers
provided updates on their
continual progress in the
organisation of the next edition
of the European Universities
Games 2024. The reported
updates on the organisational
structure and the definitive
sports programme will include
17 sports in total.
They also announced the
registration opening scheduled
for December 15. The local
committees are staying active
and continuously encourage the
inhabitants to stay physically
active. For instance, almost
150 young people accepted
the invitation of the University
of Debrecen to celebrate the
International Day of Volunteers
on December 5 and the
upcoming EUG whilst already
starting to recruit volunteers for
2024.
The organizers interactively
introduced the Games by playing
games and doing competitions:
they tested the problem-solving
skills of the young people and
their knowledge of EUG through
cognitive tasks and playful
competition. There was also
a crossword puzzle, a word
search, anthem recognition
and sports activities, where
the students not only had fun
but also gained important
knowledge. The volunteer
candidates were able to get
to know the coordinators
responsible for the volunteer
area of the EUG Debrecen
organizing committee, Katalin
Jóna, Eszter Rácz and Christa