FIVE athletes from Shenzhen are expected to participate in the 31st edition of the FISU World University Games that will be held in Chengdu, Southwest China’s Sichuan Province, between Friday and Aug. 8.

The five athletes will compete in swimming, diving and gymnastics events, Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported yesterday.

Luo Minxi will compete at the 400m freestyle and 200m freestyle events. Chen Jun’er will compete at the 50m butterfly, the 200m butterfly and 100m butterfly, while Lin Tao will join the 100m backstroke and 50m backstroke. The three swimmers are expected to participate in the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay (lineup to be determined).

Ouyang Yu will compete in the women’s 3-meter springboard diving event and Ouyang Shan will show up at both women’s gymnastics individual and team events.

The Chinese delegation is comprised of over 700 athletes, including 411 from more than 100 universities in 25 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities. The athletes will participate in all of the Games’ 18 sports. The event, originally scheduled to be held in 2021, had to be postponed twice due to COVID-19.

Chengdu is the third city on the Chinese mainland to host the biennial event, following Beijing in 2001 and Shenzhen in 2011.

At 5 a.m. Tuesday, some athletes participating in the World University Games arrived in Shenzhen on Air China flight CA868, according to sznews.com.

The flight carried 99 athletes, who will compete at events such as track and field, rowing, swimming, competitive gymnastics and water polo.

According to Shenzhen airport’s inspection station, since July 20, the station has guaranteed the smooth customs clearance of nearly 200 officials from the International University Sports Federation, athletes and media reporters attending the World University Games, who come from countries including South Africa, Bulgaria, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

In another development, a series of cultural and people-to-people exchange activities were held to mark the Universiade.

Named “Blossom of Youth,” the exchange activities were launched at Sichuan University yesterday, with Xu Liaoyuan, designer of the Chengdu Universiade torch Rong Huo, renowned writer A Lai and scholar Peng Feng in attendance alongside student representatives.

These activities included a Universiade image program, exhibitions and displays of Chinese intangible cultural heritages. (Zhang Yu)