Bilkent Olympians Skate for Turkey at the 25th Universiade Winter Olympics in Erzurum
Five Bilkent students competed for the 25th Universiade Winter Olympics in Erzurum from January 27 to February 6. Elif Bayrak (IR/I), Nilay Günay (GRA/I), and Teksin Öztekin (TRIN/I) in Ice Hockey / Division I, and Ecem Savun (MAN/I) and Ezgi Uzuncam (IE/III) in Figure Skating / Ice Dance Categories represented Turkey in the National Team.
The Universiade is an international multi-sport event, organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The name is a combination of the words "University" and "Olympiad." The Universiade is an international sporting and cultural festival that is staged every two years in a different city, and which is second in importance only to the Olympic Games. Universiade features both summer and winter Games like the Olympic Games.
A total of nearly 2,500 student athletes, coaches, and other sports officials from a record 52 countries participated in the 11-day event, which kicked off on January 27th in Erzurum. This year's Winter Universiade included 168 competitions in a total of 11 sports categories: Alpine skiing, biathlon, ice hockey, curling, ski jumping, cross country, Nordic combined, snowboard, freestyle skiing, figure skating, and short track.
Nilay Günay expressed her feelings: "We were camping for 4 months in Ankara, and we went to Latvia for 20 days and played preliminary games with their national team. In Erzurum, our competitors England, U.S.A, Finland, and Slovakia were very strong. It was a great opportunity for us to play against such strong teams. With Universiade Winter Olympics in Erzurum we had a chance to experience world's professional ice hockey. Now then we are preparing and training ourselves for Bulgaria World Championship which will be held in March 2011."
Günay added that they are expecting more Bilkent students to join their university team.
Figure skater Ecem Savun said it all: "We worked a lot. We were very excited and a bit stressed because everybody had great expectations from us. This also motivated us. We played with the teams who were playing for the world championship. We came in 4th, which we think is a good start for a Mediterranean country. Besides that there was friendship, university teams from all over the world, and national sporties. It was good to experience all."
