Ilsur Metshin about the Universiade

The Universiade in Kazan is the first sporting event of such a level in the history of modern Russia. We knew that this was not about the reputation of Kazan or even all of Tatarstan. The whole world evaluated the new Russia by the Universiade.

What is the Universiade for Kazan? This is 30 new world-class sports complexes, a new dam, 11 new interchanges, 39 pedestrian crossings, 11 new roads, 13 reconstructed streets, and 122 renovated roads! This is tens of thousands of new trees and shrubs and 5 million flowers. Kazan received almost 4 million new asphalt pavement, three metro stations, a modern airport, and an intermodal transport line. All this and much more (in particular, a million square meters of housing only in 2012) was built almost simultaneously. Perhaps, the most difficult at the same time was to avoid the transport collapse for the townspeople. In addition to this, we had to think about all the nuances of living, food, and the most comfortable logistics for both the participants of the Games and the spectators.

In general, the World Student Games-2013 in Kazan became the most ambitious in the history of these grandiose competitions. The number of sports was a record one - 27, and the number of medals - 351 sets, and the number of participants - 11,778 people from 160 countries. 150 thousand guests visited Kazan these days. The audience of sports events was 800 thousand people and more than 3 billion people watched the competitions on television.

And all without exception, from volunteers to athletes, from heads of delegations to journalists, noted that there was not a single failure for the entire time of the Kazan Universiade. The whole complex system worked like a clock. Logistics was almost irreproachable, the city looked like a toy, and sports facilities worked at the level of world standards. The torch with the Universiade fire was constantly lit, the safety was ensured at the highest level, the quality of the food was such high that the guests complained: “Too tasty, it is impossible not to get weight” ... It's no coincidence that Claude-Louis Galien, the president of the International University Sports Federation (FISU), noted after the start of the Universiade that the Kazan Games is the best in the history of these competitions, and the athletes and numerous spectators agreed with him.

I hope that the Universiade will become a prolog to the next global events, to a new stage of the city's development.