Newman Huo
TO make the 2011 Summer Universiade “the most exciting, spectacular and influential games in Universiade’s history,” the Executive Board of the Organizing Committee for the Shenzhen 26th Summer Universiade plans to add 11 optional sports.
Huang Guoqiang, vice secretary general of the Shenzhen Municipal Government and executive vice director of the executive office of the Summer Universiade, announced this yesterday at the Citizens’ Center. The meeting was presided over by Mayor Xu Zongheng.
The Universiade has 10 compulsory sports, namely track and field, water sports (swimming, diving and water polo), basketball, soccer, fencing, gymnastics, judo, table tennis, tennis and volleyball.
The proposed 11 optional sports are shooting, sailing and surfing, badminton, cycling, golf, archery, chess, tae kwon do, calisthenics, beach volleyball and weightlifting.
“If the proposed optional sports games are approved by the executive committee of the International University Sports Federation (FISU) at a meeting held in Harbin on March 1, the 26th Summer Universiade will include 21 sports programs with a total of 294 gold medals,” Huang said.
“This will make the 26th Summer Universiade exceed the 24th Univerisade in Bangkok in 2007 and the 25th Universiade, which is to be held in Belgrade in 2009, in terms of the total numbers of sports programs and gold medals. The 26th Universiade will have the largest number of participants in the history of the Universiade,” he said.
Huang said Shenzhen has adequate sports facilities, such as the Shenzhen Aquatic Sports Base, Mission Hills Golf Club and Shenzhen Cycling Track, to accommodate the proposed 11 sports.
To host the 26th Summer Universiade, Shenzhen will need a total of 76 gymnasiums and stadiums, of which 35 are for competitions and 41 for training. Of these, the city needs to build 29, and renovate 47.
At present, only the University Town Sports Center, Universiade Center and Yantian Stadium are under construction and all other facilities still remain in the preparatory stage, according to Shenzhen Vice Mayor Liang Daoxing.
Xu hailed the city’s hosting of the 2011 Summer Universiade as “a landmark event in Shenzhen’s endeavor to build the city into an international metropolis.”
To make the Universiade a successful event, Shenzhen must learn from past host cities of the Olympics and the Universiade as well as Singapore, the host country of the inaugural Youth Olympics in 2010, Xu said.
“Only when we are willing to learn from advanced cities can we know our gap in organization and management with them, and then make our efforts to narrow the gap,” he said.