The biannual event set up its athletes village on the same site of the Olympic Village, and all the stadiums for the Universiade served for the Olympics a year ago.

A total of 2,728 athletes from 46 countries and regions will compete in 11 events in the 11-day Universiade.

The event of cross-country might be cancelled due to the lack of snow on the course, but most on the schedule will be carried on with the opening ceremony being staged at the Palaolimpico on Thursday night.

A cast of acrobats and dancers animated eight scenes of a ceremony of multimedia extravagance and aesthetic wonder, combing humour, music, magic and video in a single collage.

Dozens of Olympic medalists will compete in Turin with figure skaters Zhang Dan/ Zhang Hao, silver medalists of the pairs in the Winter Olympics, heralding the Chinese team.

China is focusing on figure skating, short-course speed skating and speed skating to surpass their previous record of three gold medals in the Universiade.