Today in Slovakia the 27th World Winter Universiade is beginning.
The opening ceremony will be held at the Strbske Pleso Stadium. The ceremony will be attended by around 400 athletes from 31 countries, including Russia, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Turkey.
The Nordic events of the Universiade will take place in Slovakia from January 24 to February 1, prior to the start of the main Games, which run from Feb. 3 to 14 in Granada, Spain.
The president of the Russian Student Sports Union, Oleg Matytsin, said that the Russian team at the Winter Universiade will include about 200 athletes.
"At the last Winter Universiade the Russian team won the first team place," reminded Matytsin. "So there are other problems, but to return home with a victory. Although it is difficult to make any predictions, because we do not yet know the full squad of our main rivals. But judging by how seriously the federation approaches the formation of the team at Universiade-2015, we can say that Russia at these competitions will solve very serious tasks."
The closing ceremony of the Slovak part of the Universiade will be held on February 1.
