TURIN, Italy, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Turin, the city which hosted one of the
best Winter Olympic Games in 2006, welcomed back the winter sports as the 23rd
Winter Universiade opened here on Thursday.
The biannual event set up its athletes village on the same site of the
Olympic Village, and all the stadiums for the Universiade served for the
Olympics a year ago.
A total of 2,728 athletes from 46 countries and regions will compete in 11
events in the 11-day Universiade.
The event of cross-country might be cancelled due to the lack of snow on the
course, but most on the schedule will be carried on with the opening ceremony
being staged at the Palaolimpico on Thursday night.
A cast of acrobats and dancers animated eight scenes of a ceremony of
multimedia extravagance and aesthetic wonder, combing humour, music, magic and
video in a single collage.
Dozens of Olympic medalists will compete in Turin with figure skaters Zhang
Dan/ Zhang Hao, silver medalists of the pairs in the Winter Olympics, heralding
the Chinese team.
China is focusing on figure skating, short-course speed skating and speed
skating to surpass their previous record of three gold medals in the
Universiade.
