UB hosts torch relay for World University Games

On Monday morning, as the wind swept across the snow-covered football field at UB Stadium, runners circled the track.

But this wasn’t a track meet.

Instead, it was a torch relay to mark the pending start of the 2023 FISU World University Games next month in Lake Placid and other parts of northern New York.

Vickie Mitchell, head coach of the UB men’s and women’s track and field and cross-country teams, handled the anchor leg. When she reached the finish line, she handed the LED torch to Adirondack Mac, the Bullwinkle-like mascot representing the games.

Mitchell was an athlete at the 1993 games, when Buffalo was the first — and only U.S. city to date — to host the summer games.

“As you know, having the torch here marks a homecoming of sorts for UB, as we hosted the World University Summer Games in 1993,” UB President Satish K. Tripathi said from a podium on the track. “At that time — nearly three decades ago — some 5,000 athletes from around the globe converged on UB and Buffalo to compete in the games.”

The university provided the venues for track and field, diving, tennis and volleyball, and housed the games’ 5,000 participants in the Ellicott Complex. UB Stadium was built specifically for the games and remains one of the World University Games’ most recognizable legacies.

Tripathi said UB was a “natural fit” for the games because it “has long been renowned as a global university.” He added that UB “attracts students from around the world; where we collaborate across borders to address issues impacting our planet; and where we consider our diversity of backgrounds, experience and viewpoints among our greatest strengths.”

New York State Assemblymember Karen McMahon commented on how the torch relay “evokes memories” not only of the ’93 games, but also the 1980 Winter Olympics held in Lake Placid. She noted the power of sports to bring people together and wished the expected 1,400 collegiate athletes from 540 universities in 45 countries good luck in the competition, which takes place Jan. 12-22

Events include Alpine skiing, biathlon, cross-country skiing, curling, freestyle and freeski, figure skating, ice hockey, Nordic combined, short track speed skating, snowboarding ski jumping, and speed skating. The events will air on various ESPN channels.