The Rhein-Ruhr 2025 FISU Games

About the games

The Rhein-Ruhr metropolitan region will be the venue for the world's largest sporting event in 2025. The FISU World University Games is the biggest multisport event after the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Germany´s North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhine Ruhr metropolitan region will welcome around 10,000 athletes and officials from up to 170 countries from 16 to 27 July 2025.

The athletes will compete in 18 sports over 12 days in Bochum, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Essen and Mülheim an der Ruhr.

The Rhine-Ruhr 2025 FISU World University Games will serve as a unique platform to combine top-class sport and science. It will draw the world’s attention to Germany as a sports destination through Sportland.NRW and also promote North Rhine-Westphalia as a hub for science.

In addition to high-octane sporting action, the Games focuses on science, sustainability and intercultural exchange. A special spotlight will be on innovation and participation.

The Rhine-Ruhr 2025 FISU Games gGmbH was founded to organise the Games. The application concept was successfully developed by the German University Sports Federation adh in close cooperation with the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the State Chancellery of North Rhine-Westphalia, the International University Sports Federation FISU, the municipalities of Bochum, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Essen and Mülheim an der Ruhr, the adh member universities and other partners from organised sport and science.

Venues, Competitions & Sports

Venues

In all, 21 sports venues at established locations and on exhibition sites in Bochum, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Essen and Mülheim an der Ruhr have been earmarked for the Games.
The already existing or temporary sports facilities are located within a 25-kilometre radius and are connected by a dense public transport network, which enables a compact, modern and, in particular, sustainable event concept.

Competitions
The FISU World University Games are open to students aged 25 and under who have been nominated by their national federations.

Participants include both aspiring student and marquee athletes.
The Rhine-Ruhr 2025 FISU World University Games will create a strong incentive for performance and promotion for athletes and clubs in the region, especially in Germany.

Sports

The following 15 sports are part of the fixed programme of the summer edition of the FISU World University Games: badminton, basketball, archery, fencing, apparatus gymnastics, judo, athletics, rhythmic gymnastics, swimming, taekwondo, tennis, table tennis, volleyball, water polo and diving.
The optional three sports, 3x3 basketball, beach volleyball and rowing complete the programme of the Rhine-Ruhr 2025 FISU World University Games.
There are also plans to integrate individual Para-sport competitions into the programme.