Universiade Games in Shenzhen

World Universiade Games

The World Universiade Games, which is like an Olympics for University athletes,was held from Aug 12th - Aug 23rd in Shenzhen. 24 different sports were incorporated into the 306 events that took place..  Around 11,000 athletes attended from 152 countries.  I think the next one is in London England.

Part of the Athletes Village

Main stadium which seats 60,000 people.

The finale of the opening ceremonies which was held in the main stadium.

Ryan, Jill and Blaine had a chance to go and watch some of the basketball.  When they got to the men's venue and had to buy tickets, they had to walk about 300 m past the entrance and back again to buy the tickets.  Why the ticket trailer was up there they didn't know. They then spent about 15 minutes to get through security which was much tighter than at the airport!

This was the Canadian men playing Hong Kong, in one of the local high schools in Shenzhen.

The game was close when they arrived, but Canada pulled away and won easily.  One of the Sask Huskie men was on the team.

A few of the flags from some of the countries.  They had fun trying to guess the countries.

This fellow was one of the volunteers at the games and he was trying to improve his English, so he sat by Blaine and carried on a conversation for the whole game.  He was very friendly and even told a lady who was standing in front of them and blocking their view to sit down (In Chinese of course)

The next 3 pictures show Jill and Blaine as they went to find drinks before the the ladies game which was at another venue.  Somehow it seems they were mistaken  for coaches or athletes.  They took them down to the coaches and athletes area and rounded up some coke.  They weren't allowed to take bottles into the gym, so they came up with 3 cups , and then took them to sit in an area where only coaches and athletes were sitting.  They even wanted to pose for pictures with the 'celebrities'!

It must have been that RCHS logo that made them think he was a coach!!!

This was the ladies game against Australia.  It was close at half time, but Australia pulled ahead in the second half.  Apparently Australia had 5 or 6 players from their national team.

This is Lisa Thomadis, who coached Jill in Saskatoon.  She got free tickets for the crew and was the head coach for the Canadian women.

Watching intently from the 'special section'.

Leaving  the gym along the red carpet, where only teams, were allowed to go!

Jill and Lisa meeting after the game.

Lisa was very friendly and seemed genuinely happy to see some familiar faces from 'home'.  After the event, she and an assistant coach from McMaster university spent two days with Ryan and Jill, while Jill showed them around Hong Kong.

The media man waiting patiently to get the post game remarks from Lisa. The blonde girl on the right was one of the taller players from Canada.  They had a fun night watching some quality basketball.  The Canadian men's team won a silver medal and the women finished in 6th place.