FISU Acting President Leonz Eder told insidethegames that Norway, France, China and Kazakhstan have all expressed an eagerness to secure the hosting rights for the multi-sport event in four years’ time.

As insidethegames revealed in January, Lillehammer is weighing up a bid for 2027 after a group from the Norwegian municipality held talks with FISU officials after attending Lake Placid 2023.

Since then, Eder said France, China and Kazakhstan have emerged as potential contenders for either 2027 or 2029.

FISU has tied down hosts for the next four editions of its Summer Games, with North Carolina in the United States awarded the 2029 event at the beginning of this year.

Winter hosts, however, have yet to be finalised beyond Turin 2025, but Eder said he was optimistic of securing hosts for the 2027 and 2029 editions due to an increase in interest.

"We still have some interest from Norway," said Eder.

"They are trying to prepare a bid but we have not got the final confirmation for that.

"We have learnt from the French Minister of Sport [Amélie Oudéa-Castéra], not just the French University Sport Federation declared that 2027 or 2029 might be a possible time to host them so France is eager.

"We have also had talks with Kazakhstan and China."

"China’s Minister of Education [Huai Jinpeng] comes from Harbin and I had some talks with him.

"They had high praise for the Games in 2009 in Harbin.

"I said why can’t we come back to Harbin or Heilongjiang.

"They could easily host it in 2027 so personally I am very confident that we will have a host for 2027 and 2029 very, very soon."

Lillehammer has never previously staged the Winter World University Games but has experience of holding major events having hosted the 1994 Winter Olympics and 2016 Winter Youth Olympic Games.

France, which is currently preparing to hold next year's Olympics, has not held a FISU Games since Chamonix played host to the inaugural winter edition in 1960, while Kazakhstan last staged the event in 2017 with Almaty as host.

This year’s Summer World University Games is taking place in Chengdu in China after two postponements due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Chengdu is the fourth mainland Chinese city to host the FISU Games following a winter edition in Harbin in 2009 and summer events in Beijing in 2001 and Shenzhen in 2011.

"At the moment, we have the Summer Games already secured until 2029 and we have some interest for 2031 and maybe 2033," said Eder.

"In the winter, there are less countries that can host but I have already mentioned four and we could also ask Turkey again as they hosted very successfully in 2011.

"We have open bidding procedure for 2027 and 2029.

"At the moment, some countries are open to 2029 and others are more towards 2027.

"Of course my intention is to first secure a host for 2027 as it is closer.

"We have a General Assembly this year and you never know that there might be some surprise where an NUSF {member association} will present a bid.

"I hope by the end of the year or first quarter of next year by the latest we will [have a host for 2027]."