The inaugural Summer World University Games took place in the Italian city on August 27 1959, and then University Sports Centre (CUS) Torino President Primo Nebiolo is credited with its success.

The Games 64 years ago ran for 11 days and utilised facilities that were originally build to celebrate the unification of Italy centenary two years later.

The Opening Ceremony took place at the Stadio Comunale, now known as the Olimpico Grande Torino, where every evening the countdown to the Turin 2025 Winter World University Games can be seen.

FISU's first Summer Games was organised by the Italian University Sports Centre (FederCUSI) and saw 1,407 student-athletes from 43 countries take part.

"Since then, Turin has been the cradle of university sport and the permanent home of the Universiade brazier, just like Olympia with the Olympics," read a Turin 2025 statement.

"This means that every city hosting a summer or winter edition of the event goes to the Rectorate of the Università di Torino to light its Flame of Knowledge."

From January 13 to 23 2025, Turin is due to host the winter edition for a second time following its 2007 hosting which came a year after it staged the Winter Olympic Games. 

It is due to feature the first world edition of the Brainstorm mind challenge that is being developed by FederCUSI in collaboration with four Piemonte universities.

The Università di Torino, Politecnico di Torino, Università di Scienze Gastronomiche di Pollenzo and Università del Piemonte Orientale have selected nine disciplines that are set to be contested by approximately 1,000 students.

A maximum of 25 teams made of four people each will participate in each category in a "battle of ideas", with the winners taking €40,000 (£34,000/$43,000) while second and third will be rewarded with €20,000 (£17,000/$21,600) and €12,000 (£10,300/$12,900), respectively.

The nine areas that students will be challenged to find ways to optimise are; sustainability, democracy, life, space, energy, cities, inequality, aging, and food.