Science Minister Martin Polaschek congratulates Austria’s university sports team on six medals at the University Games 2025

“I congratulate all 24 athletes from Team Austria who competed at this year’s Winter World University Sports Championships in Turin. And especially the five winners who were able to win a total of six medals for Austria this year,” says Science Minister Martin Polaschek.

The snowboarder Carmen Kainz was able to prevail again in both speed disciplines – the parallel giant slalom and the parallel slalom, in which she won gold and silver. The 23-year-old psychology student was able to build on her successes at the last Winter Games in Lake Placid 2023, where she also made it to the podium in these disciplines (silver and gold).

The Austrian snowboard team also won two more medals in the parallel slalom: gold went to Matthäus Pink, a 23-year-old mathematics student at the University of Graz, and bronze to 22-year-old Martina Ankele, who is studying to be a teacher at the University of Klagenfurt. Like his colleague Kainz, Pink also achieved two podium finishes (gold parallel slalom, silver in parallel giant slalom) at the previous Winter Games in Lake Placid.

The reigning Austrian Unisport national champion in slalom (gold at the Unisport Austria Championship Slalom 2023) Isabel Hofherr (22, sports science student at the University of Innsbruck) won silver in ski cross (freestyle skiing) in Turin during her first international participation in the university world games.

For the first time, para competitions in international university sports

Laura Streng achieved bronze in the para Alpine skiing women’s standing competition. This is a great success for the 20-year-old, who studies law and economics at the University of Salzburg, but also for disabled sports in Austria. Para-disciplines took place for the first time in the history of international university sport. “Diversity and inclusion have been practiced at universities for a long time. That’s why I think it’s a crucial step that these principles of our social coexistence are also implemented in university sports. Our young student-athletes not only achieve top sporting achievements, they are also important ambassadors for Austria as a science location,” emphasizes Federal Minister Polaschek.

The Torino 2025 FISU World University Games Winter took place from January 13th to 23rd, 2025 in Piedmont, one of the largest university regions in Italy. In total, more than took part 2,500 student-athletes from 56 nations, including 24 on Team Austria. The competitions took place in eleven sports in six cities (in addition to Turin, Bardonecchia, Pinerolo, Torre Pellice, Pragelato and Sestriere). A total of 96 medal competitions were held and 288 medals were awarded.

www.unisport-austria.at