The athletes' village for the 2015 Gwangju Summer Universiade will start receiving visitors on June 25.

Venezuelan athletes and officials will be the first to arrive in Korea. Some 50 athletes from the South American nation and other athletes from South Africa will arrive in Korea on the same day and board buses at Incheon International Airport before heading to the athletes' village in Gwangju.

The Gwangju Summer Universiade Organizing Committee will begin formal protocol to welcome the visitors on June 26 when athletes from Iran, Argentina and Canada, among others, arrive in Korea. Beginning that day the organizing committee will seek cooperation from related government agencies, including the Ministry of Justice, to help athletes pass through immigration as quickly as possible, just a week before the start of the Universiade. Also on that day, the organizing committee will start using five high-speed KTX trains to transport athletes to Gwangju.



The organizing committee will host a ceremony to mark the opening of the athletes' village on June 26. It will continue to hold welcoming ceremonies at the village plaza adorned with international flags every day until July 2 as athletes arrive for the games.

Some 12,737 athletes and officials from 145 countries are registered to attend the Universiade, as of June 22. The number is higher than the 11,759 who went to the 2011 Kazan Summer Universiade, and is the highest participation rate in the games' history. By continent, there are 37 nations from Africa, 26 from the Americas, 33 from Asia, 45 from Europe and four nations from Oceania signed up to take part in the event.




"Excitement is high here in Gwangju as the Gwangju Summer Universiade approaches, despite the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) outbreak," said an official from the organizing committee. "We will examine the body temperatures of all the athletes as they arrive in the village and will take preventive measures and establish a medical system to deal with any confirmed MERS patients."

By Limb Jae-un
Korea.net Staff Writer
Photos courtesy of the Gwangju Summer Universiade Organizing Committee
jun2@korea.kr