Swimming with fins and other successful sports you don’t know about from FISU
SportsIn
April 30, 2024

Finswimming was the star last week in the Olympic pool at the Aquatic Sports Village in Pereira, Colombia, as part of the FISU World Championships. This is a competitive discipline that joined the large family of sports recognised by FISU in 2017 and that provides spectacular and action-packed speed in the different types of swimming. A model and example of evolution and adaptation to new generations.

Finswimming has four different techniques or specialities: surface swim, apnoea swim, scuba diving swim and open water swim.

During these days in Colombia, 12 FISU records were broken and sixteen different nations managed to reach the podium at least once. Italy, with 13 medals (six gold), was the country that won the most awards, followed by hosts Colombia, who came second with eight medals, five of them gold. Germany completed the podium with three gold medals.

FISU SPORTS

The FISU brings together many sports, some of which are not so well known and which have their place at FISU. For example, the cheerleaders have two modalities, Cheer and Cheer Dance. Cheer includes acrobatic elements that are accompanied by chanting and yelling and Cheer Dance also includes sports dance with gymnastics and includes the use of pom-poms. Adding the sport to FISU is breaking down barriers and prejudices about the sport.

Since 2004, Woodball has been part of the World University Championship programme. It is a ball sport where a wooden mallet is used to pass the ball through its gates, the goal is to complete 12 gates. As in golf, the player who completes the gates in the fewest number of strokes is the winner.

Wushu is a contact sport derived from Chinese martial arts and first entered FISU in 2017. The origin of the sport can be traced back to the human struggle for survival in a hostile environment that included hunting and defending wild animals. Wushu is a way of cultivating the body, mind and spirit.

THE FISU MENTALITY

FISU not only encourages physical activity and the exchange of cultures between young people from all over the world through its member universities on five continents, but it is also an exercise in open-mindedness and development that permeates the younger generation.

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