2016 European Universities Games

Summary

Throughout 15 days in July 2016, 5000 students from 45 European countries and 250 different universities will compete in 21 different sports, what makes this one of the biggest sport events in Croatian history. European Universities Games, are popullary known as "European Universiade" - the only differences are, except being organized on continental level, that competitors in EUG represent their universities, while in the case of Universiade, which is held on world level - competitors represent their countries. Croatia has experience in organising this type of event, because in 1987 it organised 14th summer Universiade with its capital city, Zagreb, as its host and the memory of it is still very alive in people. European Universities Games 2016 are organized by EUSA (European University Sports Association) and CASF (Croatian Academic Sport Federation) with cooperation with hosting cities Zagreb and Rijeka and also University of Zagreb and University of Rijeka.

University sports in Croatia

The first student sports club was founded 112 years ago at the University of Zagreb. The Federation of Academic Sports Clubs at the University of Zagreb was founded 92 years ago. Mandatory physical education classes were introduced in Croatian universities 52 years ago. Twenty eight years ago the first University Games, also known as Universiade was organized in Zagreb. The Croatian Academic Sports Federation was founded 22 years ago.

Organized primarily as a cultural and a social event, the 1987 Universiade in Zagreb has remained to present day the most important sporting event in Croatian history which has also brought an infrastructural renaissance to the capital city of Croatia and created the prerequisites for the significant advancement of Croatian sport as a whole.