While 2020 has so far been a difficult year for both sport and studying due to the COVID-19-pandemic, the Austrian University Sports Organisation has continued to be productive and profited from several developmental programmes.

Across the central European nation, various initiatives were put in place in order to assist and encourage students to remain active, both mentally and physically.

“The teams of several University Sports Departments really got creative and did their best to fulfil their legal mission, to provide physical activities to students and university staff,” said Unisport Austria Acting President Ms Hemma Angerer, who was pleased to see the diverse programmes offered by the autonomous universities. “Especially the team at Leoben University of Mining and Metallurgy, who did a great job to show sustainability.”

The University Sports Department in Leoben realised an online programme with structured training sessions for participants within a couple of days after the official closing of the universities. Starting with three courses, the programme grew to fifteen courses with approximately 100 participants each. The plans are to maintain the courses, even if sport can take place regularly.

“They did a great job, considering that Leoben usually has the same number of participants each semester as now in the online courses,” Ms Angerer reviews. “The online courses also have a different kind of group dynamics. Safely social contacts are very important.”



The University of Vienna initiated another innovative project for university sports championships. They start their Vienna Academic Championship as “Virtual Uni-Run” on May 28, after this system worked great for the Wings for Life World Run 2020.



Overall, Austria has shown greater focus on what the customers’ needs are during the pandemic: preservation of fitness-levels and staying in a good mood. Movement is a necessary part of everyone’s daily routine and something you can look forward to. That is where university sports can bring an added value for students and university staff in these difficult times.