Erzurum 2011 Winter Universiade - Broadcast Opening Sequence
Copyright (c) 2011 International University Sports Federation
For the event's 25th edition, the Winter Universiade came to Turkey with the main setting being Erzurum, a city situated in the Eastern Anatolia region and is 1,900 meters (6,233 feet) above sea level. Held between 27 January and 6 February 2011, this was Turkey's second time overall to host the Universiade (now known as the FISU World University Games) after İzmir previously held the summer edition in 2005.
The event attracted around 1,593 athletes from 52 nations, convening to compete in 66 events across 11 sports. On the field of play, the Russians crushed the competition in Erzurum, winning almost double the amount of medals with 38 overall - 14 were gold medals, finishing ahead of South Korea, which placed second with 7 golds, and Ukraine, which came at third with 6.
Unlike the Summer Universiade six years earlier, the hosts did not punch above its weight in the first winter edition it organized, and in fact, Turkey won just a single medal at Erzurum, compared to the 27 medals won at İzmir. Nonetheless, these Games were all about Turkey taking that very important first step forward in holding winter multi-sport competitions in an international scale, and it turned out to be one giant leap indeed.
The 2011 Universiade had transformed Erzurum into Eastern Anatolia’s biggest winter sports resort, and the city has everything in place to host world-class winter sport competitions such as the FIS Nordic Junior World Ski Championships in 2012, and the European Youth Winter Olympic Festival in 2017.
The city had an interest to bid for the 2026 Winter Olympics, and it was even confirmed as a candidate city in 2018 upon the Turkish government's backing for the bid, but later that year, Erzurum was not chosen by the IOC to advance to the next stage due to lack of transport, telecommunications and airports - that year's Winter Games were eventually given to a joint bid from Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo in Italy.
