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EUROPEAN UNIVERSITIES GAMESCORDOBA, SPAIN: JULY 13-23, 2012
One of the most important milestones in the history of EUSA and higher education
sport in Europe was the inaugural edition of the multi-sport European Universities
Games being successfully organised in the summer of 2012 in the historical
city of Cordoba in Spain.
The event brought together 2574 partici-
pants, representing 252 teams from 154
universities coming from 32 countries.
The first edition of the Games was
coordinated by the University of Cordoba
and received wide support from the city,
region, state and also the King of Spain.
Apart from the sports competitions, the
participants also enjoyed social and cul-
tural events as well as various educational
activities, and had plenty of opportunities
for networking and making new friend-
ships, letting the sportsmanship, fair play
and common interests bridge all gaps
and rivalry.
The sports competition of the Games
brought about interesting matches of the
highest quality in which the best univer-
sity teams across Europe took part and
competed for the titles of champions. No
less than 10 sports were featured, with
Badminton, Basketball, Beach Volleyball,
Football, Futsal, Handball, Rugby 7s, Table
Tennis, Tennis and Volleyball. The par-
ticipants were able to compete with their
peers in 677 matches altogether.The sports with most participants were
Football (460) and Futsal (393), followed
by Basketball, Volleyball and Handball,
which each had over 300 participants. The
majority of university teams came from
Spain (33), followed by Portugal (27), Ger-
many and Poland (21 each), with the top 5
list concluded by France (20).The Games managed to reinforce EUSA’s
philosophy of supporting and promoting
values of fair play, inclusion, celebrating
sport and academic education while sup-
porting and encouraging student athletes
throughout Europe.The success of the event was not just in
the numbers, but also in the experiences,
opportunities and cooperation. Thanks to
the devotion of the University of Cordoba
and its Rector at the time Prof. Dr Jose
Manuel Roldan Nogueras, the Organising
Committee chaired by Dr Manuel Torres
Aguilar, involvement of the Spanish Uni-
versity Sports Federation, local, regional
and national public and private partners
and local and international volunteers, the
first EUSA Games were truly memorable,
and set a benchmark for further events.