UOIT celebrates on the world stage
Athletes across the globe gather for second annual International Day of University Sport
For the first time, UOIT celebrated the International Day of University Sport on Sept. 20. For 10 years, the post-secondary institution has been offering a variety of athletic programs, including women’s hockey, seen here during preseason action in Charlottetown, PEI on Sept. 25.
By Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express
It was a big day for university sports in Canada as athletes came together on Sept. 20 to take part in the International Day of University Sport.
The day marked the first time Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) took part in the celebration, which marked its inaugural year in 2015.
Launched by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the day honours the anniversary of the first student world championship in Warsaw, Poland, which was held from Sept. 17 to 21, 1924.
For Scott Barker, the manager of intercollegiate athletics at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, the new experience was great for the institution.
“As a collective, we took all our staff, students and as many athletes as we could find and wanted to share in that celebration,” he says. “It just really brought awareness to the program and the celebration of that day.”
UOIT is one of 56 universities under the purview of CIS. On the global scale, CIS is only one of the 170 national university sport organizations that take part in annual events hosted by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). In the last athletics cycle, more than 14,000 athletes took part in FISU sporting events, while another 66,000 took part in world university championships.
According to a news release from FISU, the international celebration “aims at confirming the importance of sport in universities and the role of universities in the community as responsible actors for consolidating and developing quality physical and sport education at the service of citizens.”
For Barker, it’s really about growing students athletes and having them experience something new.
“New experiences are very much a part of being at university, so the more we can engage the students and recognizing that sport is a part of a post-secondary, but also the value that sport brings to post-secondary education.”