Lake Placid 2023 Winter World University Games - Broadcast Opening Sequence

Copyright (c) 2023 International University Sports Federation

At this very moment, the Universiade had then become the FISU World University Games, with the winter edition in 2023 being the first to bear this new name.

Formerly known as the Winter Universiade, the 31st iteration of the Winter World University Games were held between 12 to 22 January 2023, being hosted by the United States. While Lake Placid acts itself as the main host city, some events were also held in neighbourning cites of Wilmington, Saranac Lake and Potsdam, all of which were located at New York state. Some venues for the Games, particularly in Lake Placid, have been used for events during both the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympics, with recent redevelopments needed in time for the FISU Winter Games.

This was the first FISU Winter Games since the 2019 Games in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, given that the supposed 30th edition in Lucerne, Switzerland in 2021 was ultimately cancelled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, America hosts the Universiade for the third time overall, following Lake Placid's last staging of the Winter Universiade in 1972, as well as the summer edition in 1993, at Buffalo, New York.

Lake Placid was announced as the host city on 5 March 2018, and the bid was by FISU officially as one of the strongest in the history of Universiades. Since the 2021 Winter Universiade was called off due to the pandemic, the handover to Lake Placid was instead took place at a ceremony in Turin in January 2022.

Among one of the noted themes for the event is highlighting climate change and sustainability, as noticed by the organizers' 'Save Winter' movement and especially the FISU World Conference, which took place simultaneously with the Games. Also, as part of the movement's efforts to reduce carbon emissions, the cauldron was instead lit with utilized LED lights rather than a burning flame, and even the torch itself was completely carbon-free, also using LED technology.

Around 1,443 athletes from 46 nations competed at the Lake Placid FISU Winter Games, which featured a Games' record-tying 85 medal events in 12 sports. This edition had the current nine mandatory sports, being the first in which freestyle skiing became a mandatory sport. By the current FISU rules, speed skating has a unique status within the FISU program, as it does not count as either a required or optional sport, and when a city adds it as an optional sport it gains the right to add an extra optional sport. In the case of Lake Placid 2023, the choice was for the nordic combined, as ski jumping was planned as an optional sport.

While Team USA had won only three golds at their home games - thus placing them at eighth, Japan came out as the event's overall winners with 48 medals of any color - 21 were gold, and they finished the Games ahead of South Korea, which came at second with 12 gold medals. Canada rounded up the top three with six golds.

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