NC gets another shot to host World University Games. Here’s when event will be held.
North Carolina got a second chance to host the World University Games, two months after losing a bid to host the 2027 event.
The International University Sports Federation announced Tuesday that the state will host the games in 2029, skipping the usual bidding process on the strength of North Carolina’s original pitch to host in the Triangle and Triad.
A delegation from North Carolina traveled to Lake Placid, N.Y., this week ahead of the winter version of the event held there to restate its case to host. The bid committee had secured $25 million in state funding for the 2027 bid, according to bid chairman Hill Carrow.
“Since the international governing body rated North Carolina as the best bid in its technical evaluation of the 2027 bids, though we didn’t win the vote for those Games, we knew we had a bid very much worthy of hosting the World University Games,” Carrow wrote in an email to the News & Observer.
The FISU picked Chungcheong Megacity in South Korea as the host for the 2027 games over North Carolina. This will be the first time the United States will host the summer version of the games since Buffalo in 1993.
“The (2027) North Carolina USA Bid, in fact, scored the highest on our staff technical evaluation of the bids,” FISU president Leonz Eder said in a statement. “Even though North Carolina did not win the 2027 FISU Games last fall, we have worked diligently with our membership and staff since that time on the best way to secure North Carolina USA as a future host of the FISU Games.”
The 2021 edition of the event, held in China, included more than 7,000 college athletes competing in 18 sports over 12 days.
The bid includes the use of school facilities at Duke, Durham Tech, Elon, Meredith, North Carolina A&T, N.C. Central, N.C. State, Shaw, St. Augustine’s, North Carolina, UNC Greensboro, Wake Tech and William Peace.
“North Carolina’s ‘University Hub’ has all the sports facilities, as well as athlete housing and dining facilities, already built and in place — with no construction needed — to host the Games today,” Carrow wrote.
It will be a busy summer for sports in North Carolina: Pinehurst Resort and Country Club’s historic No. 2 course is scheduled to host both the U.S. Open and the U.S. Women’s Open in back-to-back weeks in June, repeating the feat it pulled off in 2014. Pinehurst will also host the U.S. Open in 2024.
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Aaron Sanchez-Guerra contributed to this report
This story was originally published January 10, 2023 at 5:43 PM.
