like a community, FISU launched
an online #FitAtHome campaign
in March 2020. The four-
week-long campaign brought
together FISU athletes, Olympic
champions and even FISU staff,
who shared tips for working
out at home, and helped the
community stay mentally strong
and healthy through the first
global lockdown.
Numerous champion athletes
joined this FISU home
workout fitness challenge,
including Napoli 2019 Summer
Universiade medalists Canadian
Courtney Hufsmith (1500m) and
Ernest Obiena of the Philippines
(pole vault), as well as American
swimming sensation Kylee
Perry. In the Napoli’s Piscina
Scandone, the junior from the
University of North Carolina
wolfpack had blazed to World
University Games gold in a
personal record 25.19 in the
50m freestyle event.
On the winter sports side, FISU’s
social media channels had a
student-athlete takeover from
many popular athletes, including
the German figure skating duo
of Tim Dieck and Kati Muller
who put on a live workout on
Instagram.At that time, when the world
was forced to sit back, slow
down and take stock, FISU
President Mr Oleg Matytsin
urged the university community
to look at the positives.“Even as you stay fit at home
and continue your preparation
for sports events, you may
have the time right now to
focus a little bit more on your
academics and education and
think about your dual career.”Mr Matytsin stressed upon the
important role that universities
played, even though campuses
around the world were shut. He
believed universities could play
a leading role in keeping their
student population informed and
optimistic. The FISU Healthy
Campus project was launched
just in time to facilitate this.“Universities have to play
the most important role,” Mr
Matytsin said. “And FISU is
working closely with many
of them, on our far-reaching
Healthy Campus project.”Despite the difficult conditions,
FISU successfully launched
the highly anticipated Healthy
Campus project on May 12, 2020,
opening doors to all universities
around the world to come
together on one platform to
positively impact the lifestyles
of millions of university students
around the world, by encouraging
physical activity and healthy
choices on campuses.“Through this project, FISU
provides a unique and very
important tool to universities
to promote the values of
physical activity, health and
nutrition among their student
community,” added Mr Matytsin.FISU Secretary General-CEO
Mr Eric Saintrond counted the
successful launch of the FISU
Healthy Campus programme, as
one of the biggest triumphs of
the year 2020.“Despite everything, we had the
successful global launch of the
Healthy Campus programme,
which already has more than
fifty major universities on board
by now,” said Mr Saintrond.
“Through this project, we have
found a way to extend ouractivities to all students; not
just elite student-athletes. We
believe that FISU has a very
important social responsibility
and we want to reach millions of
students.”Soon after the launch of the
FISU Healthy Campus project
came the exciting UWC Football
2.0 Team Challenge virtual
tournament, which brought
together participating teams
from November 2019’s inaugural
University World Cup Football
tournament. The unprecedented
success of this endeavour gave
way to FISU’s first-ever eSports
Challenge in early July – a FIFA
20 competition that produced
the world’s first Saudi woman
ever to win an international
e-football title, in Najd Fahd.Never before had the online
university sport community
come together as strongly as
it did in 2020. At the end of
thirteen such back-to-back
online campaigns between
March and September, FISU’s
digital engagement jumped to
an all-time high, paving the way
for future campaigns, pandemic
or not.