2009 Summer Universiade

The 2009 Summer Universiade, officially known as the XXV Summer Universiade, was celebrated in Belgrade, Serbia from July 1 to 12, 2009. The event has also been organised by a range of co-host cities mostly in Vojvodina (Serbian Autonomous Province), close to Belgrade. It was the largest sporting event ever to be organised by the city. At this Universiade the biggest star was the Russian rhythmic gymnast Evgeniya Kanaeva, who won 5 gold medals. Russia was the leading nation in the medal table, with the most gold medals (27) and most medals (76).

XXV Summer Universiade
XXV Летња универзијада
XXV Letnja univerzijada
Host cityBelgrade, Serbia
Nations145
Athletes6,300
Events15 sports
OpeningJuly 1, 2009
ClosingJuly 12, 2009
Opened byPrime Minister Mirko Cvetković
Athlete's OathIvana Đerisilo (volleyball)
Judge's OathIvanka Raković (waterpolo)
Torch lighterPetar Filipović-Kusturica (waterpolo)
Main venueBelgrade Arena
Websiteuniversiade-belgrade2009.org (archived)
Summer
Winter

Bidding process

edit
Bid cities
City Country
Belgrade   Serbia and Montenegro
Monterrey   Mexico
Poznań   Poland

The bidding process for the 2009 Summer Universiade games began in early 2004. Together with Belgrade, another two cities bid for the event – Monterrey in Mexico and Poznań in Poland. Working in Belgrade's favour were the various major sporting events the city was awarded to host in the then-upcoming 2005–2007 period such as EuroBasket 2005, the 2005 European Volleyball Championship, the 2006 European Water Polo Championship, and the European Youth Olympic Festival 2007. Furthermore, the city launched two unsuccessful candidate bids to organize the Summer Olympic Games (1992 and 1996); for the 1992 Summer Olympics bidding process, Belgrade was eliminated in the third round of International Olympic Committee voting, with the games ultimately being awarded to Barcelona. Belgrade was also eliminated (this time in the first round) in the 1996 Summer Olympics bidding process, with said games ultimately being awarded to Atlanta.[1][2]

On 10 January 2005, Belgrade was announced as the host city of the 2009 Summer Universiade in Innsbruck, Austria. The host city announcement ceremony was attended by the now-deceased Belgrade mayor Nenad Bogdanović.

Mascot

edit
 
Srba – 2009 Summer Universiade mascot

The mascot of the 2009 Summer Universiade is a sparrow bird. The organisers chose the sparrow not only because of its symbolic ties to the host city but also because it represents a fast, dynamic and skillful bird, attributes needed for those competing at Universiade. The mascot received a new more modern look in 2009 and a competition began to name the Belgrade sparrow. The three final names for the sparrow were published in the Serbian media in April 2009, with the finalists being Srba, Cvrle and Dživdžan. The final voting was left to the 10,000 Universiade volunteers who overwhelmingly chose the name "Srba".[3]

Venues

edit

The 2009 Summer Universiade took place in 69 venues across Belgrade and near bycities Inđija, Novi Sad, Obrenovac, Pančevo, Smederevo, Vršac and Zrenjanin.[4] Obrenovac hosted the water polo and volleyball competition, Inđija, Pančevo and Vršac the basketball, Novi Sad the athletics and volleyball, while Zrenjanin hosted the swimming competition. The venue for each sport can be found on the official website of the 2009 Summer Universiade in Belgrade.

The opening and closing ceremonies took place at the Belgrade Arena, with a capacity of 20,000. A range of sports halls have undergone intense reconstruction to meet standards for the Universiade games. A number of venues were also newly constructed.

  • FK Jakovo Stadium — football

Universiade Village

edit

The Universiade Village was home to all athletes participating at the 2009 Summer Universiade games. Often referred to as Belville, the village has been newly built and comprises 14 buildings containing modern apartments. The Belville complex consists of a residential area comprising 120,000m², commercial and business facilities comprising 34,800m² and educational facilities comprising 6,100m². The complex also includes 22,000m² of office space. The Belville complex was completed in May 2009 and officially opened in June 2009. 2000 Apartments have been offered for sale in spring of 2008, and the new owners will be allowed to move in during October 2009.

Each building has been named after a flower. They are Iris Marigold, Dandelion, Violet, Lily of the Valley, Sunflower, Mimosa, Cyclamen, Gillyflower, Syringa, Jacinth, Rose, Tulipa, and Lily. During the construction of the village it was the largest development site in the Balkans. It is located in New Belgrade with the closest venues to it being Belgrade Arena (basketball and table tennis), EXPO XXI (taekwondo) and TK Gazela (tennis).

Sports

edit

Participants

edit

Medal table

edit

  *   Host nation (Serbia)

RankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotal
1  Russia (RUS)27222776
2  China (CHN)22211558
3  South Korea (KOR)21111547
4  Japan (JPN)20213273
5  United States (USA)13131339
6  Ukraine (UKR)7111331
7  Chinese Taipei (TPE)75517
8  Italy (ITA)6141131
9  Poland (POL)610824
10  Serbia (SRB)*55919
11  Australia (AUS)5218
  Iran (IRI)5218
13  France (FRA)48921
14  Belarus (BLR)42511
15  Spain (ESP)40610
16  Mexico (MEX)35513
17  Germany (GER)331117
18  Great Britain (GBR)3137
19  Switzerland (SUI)3115
20  Netherlands (NED)3025
  Portugal (POR)3025
22  Canada (CAN)27615
23  South Africa (RSA)2259
  Turkey (TUR)2259
25  Brazil (BRA)2226
26  Cuba (CUB)2125
27  Slovenia (SLO)2024
28  Azerbaijan (AZE)2002
  Hong Kong (HKG)2002
30  North Korea (PRK)1348
31  Hungary (HUN)1258
32  Kazakhstan (KAZ)1247
33  New Zealand (NZL)1214
  Romania (ROU)1214
35  Czech Republic (CZE)1146
36  Kenya (KEN)1113
  Lithuania (LTU)1113
  Moldova (MDA)1113
  Senegal (SEN)1113
40  Bulgaria (BUL)1012
41  Honduras (HON)1001
  Latvia (LAT)1001
  Sweden (SWE)1001
44  Egypt (EGY)0246
45  Croatia (CRO)0213
  Mongolia (MGL)0213
  Vietnam (VIE)0213
48  Thailand (THA)0167
49  Slovakia (SVK)0134
50  Armenia (ARM)0123
  Belgium (BEL)0123
52  Israel (ISR)0112
53  Algeria (ALG)0101
  Austria (AUT)0101
  Ecuador (ECU)0101
56  Denmark (DEN)0011
Totals (56 entries)204203262669

Schedule

edit
 ●  Opening Ceremony  ●  Competitions  ●  Finals  ●  Closing Ceremony
June/July 30 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 Total
Ceremonies
Archery 2 8 10
Athletics 2 6 10 9 9 10 46
Basketball 2 2
Diving 2 1 1 2 1 1 4 12
Fencing 2 2 2 2 2 2 12
Football 2 2
Artistic gymnastics 1 1 2 10 14
Rhythmic gymnastics 2 6 8
Judo 4 4 4 4 2 18
Swimming 4 5 5 7 4 7 8 40
Table tennis 2 1 2 2 7
Taekwondo 5 4 4 4 4 21
Tennis 2 5 7
Volleyball 1 1 2
Water polo 1 1 2
Total Gold Medals 8 7 10 21 12 17 19 21 35 42 11 203

Broadcasting

edit

The host broadcaster of the 2009 Summer Universiade was Serbia's RTS, the national broadcasting corporation. It used its first and second channel to broadcast the games as well as its digital channel. The games were produced and broadcast in high-definition television. Eurosport provided cable broadcasting to European nations.[5]

References

edit
  1. ^ "History of the Olympic Committee of Serbia". Olympic Committee of Serbia. Archived from the original on 2009-01-10. Retrieved 2007-05-19.
  2. ^ "Atlanta 1996". Official Website of the Olympic Movement. Archived from the original on 19 May 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-19.
  3. ^ "Maskota Univerzijade – Srba". Na Dlanu. Archived from the original on 2009-04-06. Retrieved 2009-07-26.
  4. ^ "Trećina Univerzijade biće održana u Vojvodini". Blic. Retrieved 2008-10-22.[permanent dead link]
  5. ^ "Universiade Belgrade 2009 on Eurosport". Universiade Belgrade 2009. Archived from the original on 2011-09-27. Retrieved 2008-05-08.
edit