2021 Winter Universiade

The 2021 Winter Universiade, officially known as the XXX Winter Universiade or 30th Winter Universiade, and commonly known as Lucerne 2021, was a multi-sport event for student and youth athletes that was scheduled to take place from 11 to 21 December 2021 in Lucerne, Switzerland, with preliminary competition in some events beginning 6 December 2021. The Games were to be hosted at venues in cantons of Central Switzerland, including Lucerne, Nidwalden, Obwalden, Schwyz, Uri, and Zug.

Lucerne, which was the only city to bid for the Games, was named host In March 2016. On 29 November 2021, the Games were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Omicron variant.

Cancellation
The Games were originally scheduled to be held 21–31 January 2021, but were postponed indefinitely on 31 August 2020 due to COVID-19. In November, new dates in December 2021 were announced. On 29 November 2021, only one week prior to the start of preliminary competition, it was announced that the 2021 Winter Universiade had been cancelled due to travel restrictions imposed by the Swiss government to prevent the spread of Omicron variant. The Games would not eventually be rescheduled.

Due to the cancellation, the handover to Lake Placid was held at a ceremony at the University of Turin in January 2022, concurrent with the lighting of the flame for the 2021 Summer World University Games in Chengdu (which, in May 2022, were subsequently postponed to 2023).

Venues
The organisation of the event was a joint project of Central Switzerland's six cantons, the city of Lucerne, and the Canton of Grisons. The Games were to use existing infrastructure, with all sports facilities accessible by public transport.

Sports
The 2021 Winter Universiade was to consist of 60 events in 10 sports, the smallest programme of a winter Universiade since Tarvisio 2003.





Out of the three slots given to the organizing committee to add "optional", discretionary events to the programme, the Lucerne organizing committee added only ski-orienteering. Freestyle skiing–a recurring optional event at the Winter Universiade, was promoted to the core Winter Universiade programme of "compulsory" sports beginning with these Games.

Emblem
The emblem was designed by Peter J. Wardis, consisting of six intersecting "U" letters that are arranged to form a snowflake, representing the six cantons hosting the Games (with Lucerne represented by a point at the centre of the emblem).

Mascot
Wuli, the Lucerne 2021 mascot was designed by Luisa Zürcher, an animation student at the Lucerne School of Art and Design, and was unveiled at a ceremony marking the one-year milestone before the Games. Zürcher's design was inspired by yeti folklore, the mountains and myths of Central Switzerland, and Fasnacht, the Carnival festival that has deep roots in the traditions of Central Switzerland. The name is a combination of the initials of "Winter Universiade" with the typical Swiss word ending "-li". It was chosen by the public in an online vote.