The 2025 FISU Winter World University Games, also known as the XXXII Winter World University Games, or the 32nd Winter Universiade, and commonly known as Turin 2025 or Torino 2025, is a multi-sport event scheduled from 13–23 January 2025, in Turin, Italy. The Piedmontese capital was confirmed as the host city for the games on 15 May 2021.[1] This will be the 7th time in the history that the event will be held in Italy and 2nd time in the city, as the 2007 Winter Universiade was also held there. The city is considered the birthplace of the event, as in 1959 Summer Universiade, its first summer and winter edition was also held there. Torino also hosted the 1970 Summer Universiade and is the second dual World University Games host city, as Sofia in Bulgaria is the first.
 | |
| Host city | Turin, Italy |
|---|---|
| Motto | Piemonte land of sport, Piemonte terra di sport |
| Edition | 32nd |
| Events | 96 in 11 sports |
| Opening | 13 January 2025 |
| Closing | 23 January 2025 |
| Opened by | President Sergio Mattarella (expected) |
| Main venue | Inalpi Arena (opening) / Piazza Castello(closing) |
| Website | wugtorino2025 |
If one counts the summer editions, this is the 12th time that the World University Games have been held on Italian soil, as the most recent 2019 Summer Universiade held in Naples.
The 2025 FISU Winter World University Games will be the first World University Games event to feature para-athletes competing in para-sport events, alongside the existing able-bodied events as part of FISU’s long-term strategy of inclusiveness and social sustainability.
Bidding process
editOn 6 July 2020, representatives from the Metropolitan City of Turin, Piedmont Region, University of Turin, Polytechnic of Turin, CUSI Turin, EDISU and University of Eastern Piedmont formally announced their candidature to host the 2025 Winter games.[2] The joint bid, known as "Torino 2025," included for the second time intentions to host parasports events, in tandem with the 2025 World Winter Special Olympics in Piedmont Region. The Italian government's Minister of Sport, Vincenzo Spadafora, confirmed his strong support for the candidature on 7 July 2020.[3] Considered the birthplace of the event, the city has hosted the 1959 and 1970 Summer Universiades, the 2006 Winter Olympics and Paralympics and the 2007 Winter Universiade and has a tradition of hosting international sporting and entreteniment events and also hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in 2022. Italy's relationship with university sports also stands out, as Rome hosted the Summer Games in 1975, while Sicily in also hosted the same event 1997 and Naples in more recently in 2019, replacing Brasília as host city. Sestriere was the first Winter Games edition in the same event in 1966 games with Turin serving as the host city for ice hockey. And just as in 2007, it will be the sub-venue for snow events. Livigno in Sondrio Province, the 1975 Winter Games. In 1985, it was the turn of the resort of Belluno in Veneto. Another resort, Tarvisio in the most northeastern part of the country with neighboring cities in Austria and Slovenia, co-hosted the 2003 winter event. And in 2013 when the province of Trentino replaced Maribor in Slovenia and hosted the event during the bid process to the 2026 Winter Olympics with some venues who were also part of the project.
Despite having begun, negotiations for this edition to be held in Lucerne, Switzerland due to the cancellation of the 2021 Winter Universiade due to the COVID-19 pandemic were not useful and in addition there was a joint proposal made by Sweden and Finland led by Stockholm as main host.[4]
Venues
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Alongside Turin, six municipalities in the Piedmont region will host 11 sports:[5]
| Venue | City | Sport | Capacity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inalpi Arena | Turin | Opening Ceremony | 14,350 | 
|
| Piazza Castello | Turin | Closing Ceremony | - | 
|
| Palavela | Turin | Figure skating and short track speed skating | 8,285 | 
|
| Palasport Tazzoli | Turin | Ice hockey (finals) and curling | 2,290 | 
|
| Pinerolo Palaghiaccio | Pinerolo | Ice hockey | 2,000 | |
| Palaghiaccio Olimpico | Torre Pellice | Ice hockey | 2,370 | 
|
| Pragelato Plan | Pragelato | Biathlon, cross-country skiing and ski orienteering | 
| |
| Melezet | Bardonecchia | Alpine skiing and snowboarding | 
| |
| Snowpark Melezet Sellette & Campo Smith 1 | Bardonecchia | Freestyle skiing | ||
| Sestriere Colle | Sestriere | Ski mountaineering | 
|
Opening Ceremonies
editThe Opening ceremonies are scheduled for the evening of Monday, 13 January, at the Inalpi Arena.
Closing Ceremonies
editThe Closing ceremonies are scheduled for the evening of Thursday, 23 January, at the Piazza Castello.
The Games
editEvents in 11 sports will be contested during the Games, with the nine compulsory sports, and two optional sports: ski mountaineering—which will make its World Winter University Games debut, and ski orienteering—which will return for the first time since 2019, and is also scheduled to debut at the 2026 Winter Olympics. As was proposed in the Turin bid, events for disability classifications will be held as part of the Games for the first time.[6][7]
- Numbers in parentheses indicate the number of medal events contested in each sport. This number also consider the parasport events
Alpine skiing (21) ()
Biathlon (9) ()
Cross-country skiing (21) ()
Curling (3) ()
Figure skating (3) ()
Freestyle skiing (10) ()
Ice hockey (2) ()
Short track speed skating (9) ()
Ski orienteering (3) ()
Ski mountaineering (5) ()
Snowboarding (10) ()
Schedule
editThis is the final schedule announced in October 2024.[8]
| OC | Opening ceremony | ● | Event competitions | 1 | Event finals | CC | Closing ceremony |
| January | 11 Sat |
12 Sun |
13 Mon |
14 Tue |
15 Wed |
16 Thu |
17 Fri |
18 Sat |
19 Sun |
20 Mon |
21 Tue |
22 Wed |
23 Thu |
Events |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ceremonies | OC | CC | ||||||||||||
 Alpine skiing
|
2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 9 | |||||
 Para alpine skiing
|
6 | 6 | 12 | |||||||||||
 Biathlon
|
2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 9 | ||||||||
 Cross-country skiing
|
2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 11 | ||||||||
 Para Cross-country skiing
|
6 | 6 | 12 | |||||||||||
 Curling
|
● | ● | ● | 1 | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | 2 | 3 |
 Figure skating
|
● | 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||||||||
 Freestyle skiing
|
● | ● | ● | 2 | ● | ● | 2 | ● | 2 | ● | 2 | 2 | 10 | |
 Ski Mountaineering
|
2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | ||||||||||
 Ice hockey
|
● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | 1 | ● | ● | 1 | 2 |
 Short track speed skating
|
2 | 4 | 3 | 9 | ||||||||||
 Ski-orienteering
|
2 | 1 | 3 | |||||||||||
 Snowboarding
|
● | ● | ● | 2 | ● | ● | 2 | ● | 2 | ● | 2 | 2 | 10 | |
| Total events | 9 | 11 | 10 | 14 | 11 | 8 | 6 | 8 | 11 | 8 | 96 | |||
| Cumulative total | 9 | 20 | 30 | 44 | 55 | 63 | 69 | 77 | 88 | 96 | 96 | |||
| January | 11 Sat |
12 Sun |
13 Mon |
14 Tue |
15 Wed |
16 Thu |
17 Fri |
18 Sat |
19 Sun |
20 Mon |
21 Tue |
22 Wed |
23 Thu |
Events |
References
edit- ^ Davide Petrizzelli (15 May 2021). "Accettata la candidatura: le Universiadi invernali 2025 si terranno a Torino". TorinoToday. Retrieved 15 May 2021.
- ^ Leonardo di Paco (6 July 2020). "A Torino le Universiadi invernali del 2025". La Stampa. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
- ^ "Universiadi, il ministro Spadafora sta con Torino: Fermo sostegno alla candidatura". La Repubblica. 7 July 2020. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
- ^ Mariachiara Giacosa (15 May 2021). "Universiadi, Torino batte Stoccolma e si aggiudica i Giochi invernali studenteschi del 2025". La Repubblica. Retrieved 15 May 2021.
- ^ Torino 2025 Competition Schedule
- ^ "The Torino 2025 World University Games Winter: the historic first Universiade open to para-student athletes". insidethegames.biz. 14 November 2023.
- ^ "Torino 2025, the first Universiade without barriers: Para-athletes at the starting gate of the FISU Games". wugtorino2025.com. 14 November 2023.
- ^ Torino 2025 Competition Schedule