10 November 2015. Ever since 1949, the Fédération Internationale du Sport Universitaire (FISU) has organised championships for university athletes. Unisport Director Leonz Eder has been active in various functions for FISU since 1991. Eder, who has been one of four Vice-Presidents of FISU for four years, was elected 1st Vice-President on 8 November 2015 and now occupies FISU’s second highest position. In future, the Federation will be headed by the Russian Oleg Matytsin, who replaces the Frenchman Claude-Louis Gallien as President.

Establishing international contacts

Leonz Eder’s function as 1st Vice-President will primarily extend to representative appearances as the President’s deputy. “Besides safeguarding the intensive competition schedule, the main task will be to further extend contacts with the International Olympic Committee and the sports federation.” This was a task of FISU as a whole. Whether Eder will continue to chair the World University Championships International Technical Committee and remain FISU’s Head of Protocol will be decided in the near future.

Competitive sports and conferences

The International University Sports Federation awards the Winter and Summer Universiades every two years and the World University Championships in all the even-numbered years. “In both sports tournaments, several thousand student athletes compete in almost forty sports,” says Leonz Eder. Besides competitive sports, FISU runs an educational department which organises conferences and seminars about university sports.

Boosting the status of exercise and sports

The main function of university sports is the encouragement of popular and health sports in the hope that this will lead students towards a life-long sports and exercise regime. Eder also regards this as one of FISU’s challenges: “to further promote university sports.” Since university sports are organised in very different ways worldwide, they must be supported in many African and Latin American countries, in particular, to ensure that the status of exercise and sports is enhanced at a national and international level.