The FISU World University Games Winter Torino 2025 will start in the beautiful surroundings of the Castello del Valentino, the historic seat of the Polytechnic University of Turin. It's the same place where the prototype of the torch for the upcoming Winter University Games was officially presented. The event, originally called the Universiade, is a combination of the words university and Olympics. 

Organised by the International University Sports Federation (FISU), the World University Winter Games take place in odd-numbered years and feature competitions in winter sports such as alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, ski jumping, Nordic combined, biathlon, snowboarding, curling, figure skating, speed skating and ice hockey.

Guido Saracco, Rector of the Polytechnic University of Turin, hosted the presentation press conference. Institutional greetings were given by Alberto Rainoldi, Vice Rector for Welfare, Sustainability, and Sport at the University of Turin, Leonz Eder, President of FISU, Fabrizio Ricca, Sports Councillor of the Piedmont Region, Michela Favaro, Deputy Mayor of Turin, Riccardo D'Elicio, President of CUS Turin, and Alessandro Ciro Sciretti, President of the Turin 2025 Games Organising Committee. 

The presentation was attended by a special guest, Italian sporting legend Livio Berruti, who won four gold medals in athletics, three of them at his first Universiade in Turin in 1959 (100m, 200m, 4x100m), another gold (4x100m in Tokyo in 1967) and two bronze (100m, 200m in Porto Alegre in 1963). 

The 84-year-old, who also won the 200m in Rome in 1960 as a 21-year-old chemistry student at the University of Padua, was the last torchbearer to light the cauldron at the opening ceremony of the 2007 Winter Universiade in Turin.

These Games will be a true instrument of change and education, promoting growth and integration with inclusion. This will be reflected, among other things, in the fact that, for the first time, male and female athletes, as well as para-athletes, will compete on the same tracks and in the same competition programme in alpine and cross-country skiing (standing, sitting, and visually impaired categories).

There is a direct link to the four goals of the United Nations' 2030 Agenda, which the Organising Committee of the FISU World University Games Winter Torino 2025 aims to achieve: Good health and well-being of people (Goal #3), Equal and quality education (Goal #4), Gender equality (Goal #5), Sustainable cities and communities (Goal #11). Sport is an opportunity to break down barriers and conquer cultural and economic spaces, thanks to the valuable contribution of young university students. 

It is in this spirit that the Torch of Turin 2025 project was born, promoting these universal values and messages with the participation of young students and civil society.

How the "La Guarini" torch prototype was born:

Cristian Campagnaro, coordinator of the Design College at the Polytechnic University of Turin and scientific director of the project development process, and Luigi Bistagnino, former professor at the Polytechnic University of Turin and tutor of the workshop "THE TORCH AND THE CAULDRON FOR 2025: planning the Winter Universiade," developed under the agreement between the University and the Organising Committee. 

The workshop, hosted by the Polytechnic University of Turin with the support of CUS Turin and FISU, the workshop took place in March 2023 and involved 14 students from the Design course. It focused on two themes: the enhancement of the material culture and the cultural history of the territory, with particular attention to Baroque and Modernist architecture, a strong identity of the capital city of Piedmont, Turin; environmental responsibility and sustainability, in line with the criteria and philosophy of the Organising Committee and the objectives of the Polytechnic University of Turin.

Eight torch concepts were developed, and the projects "The Guarini" and "Lafleur" were selected as finalists by the Organising Committee of the Turin 2025 World Winter University Games. Both concepts integrated LED lighting, recyclable materials, and the ability to function as a lighting fixture.

To commemorate the 400th anniversary of the birth of the great architect, priest and mathematician Guarino Guarini, the final concept chosen was "The Guarini," inspired by the six concentric levels of the dome of the Chapel of the Holy Shroud in Turin Cathedral, designed by the renowned architect. "The Guarini" project was created by students Gianluca Basile, Giovanni Bergadano, and Matteo Bizzarri.

The dome of the Chapel of the Holy Shroud in Turin Cathedral, designed by Guarini, is one of the most innovative masterpieces of this movement. The dome is characterised by a composition of concentric hexagons rising in six levels, with baskets that allow light to enter, creating illusory plays of light and shadow. The core of the "Guarini" concept is precisely the reference to the concentric geometries of the dome and the tension towards the light. 

"The Guarini" has been designed to have a double function: it is a torch when held and a lighting object when placed on a surface. The colour chosen for the Turin 2025 torch is red, symbolising the fight against gender violence. It joins the five colours of Turin 2025: pink, purple, blue, yellow and green.

When the cauldron will be lit:

On 20 September 2024, to celebrate of the International Day of University Sport, the torch relay will start from the Rectorate of the University of Turin, where the Universiade cauldron is located - the event that was born in 1959 in the Piedmontese capital under the name of Universiade, thanks to the vision of the then president of CUS Turin, Primo Nebiolo, who died in 1999.

This will be a special edition in which the Torch of the Games will leave Turin to present itself to Europe, travel through the history of the Universiade and return to Piedmont, where students from various provinces of the region will be waiting to welcome it. The journey will end where it all began, arriving in Turin exactly one year from today, on 13 January 2025, to light the cauldron for the thirty-second Winter Universiade.