Coimbra is the Portuguese city of students. The European Universities Games are precisely for students so the choice of this city to host such a big event made total sense to me. Coimbra was selected to host the tournament which is the biggest multi-sport event ever made in Portugal.

Speaking about numbers here are more than 3000 athletes from 350 universities of 40 countries and 1000 national and international volunteers in a total of 4100 accredited people to compete in 13 different sports disciplines (male and female) for two weeks of competition.

This city is always full of students during the school year and almost empty in the Summer but this time that has changed. In every corner of the city buses with the description “EUG 2018” pass by and the teams participating in the event walk through Coimbra. This brings a lot of sports fans to the city to cheer for teams which are really good for the Economy.

Since I studied in Coimbra a couple of years ago it’s really nice to see that the academic tradition is super well-represented in the games. Students are wearing “traje” (a Portuguese academic costume) for the ceremonies and athletes from Coimbra wear their “capas” (the cape is a part of “traje”) to start the matches. The mascot is hilarious posing for pictures with the athletes.

It’s amazing the fact that someone came up with the idea of starting this kind of events. We meet people everywhere in the most random ways. Sports unite people.

After “European Universities Football Championships” in Porto last year I got to know about this event and I immediately sent my application for this year’s competition. Today I’m here and it’s been a wonderful time!

by Joana Filipa Sousa Lima, Volunteer Media Team EUG2018