The opening ceremony took place on May 20 at the Marins Park Hotel. Olga Petrova, Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, stressed the importance of developing inclusive sports and noted that Southern Federal University has serious experience and necessary competencies in the field of inclusive education.

As noted by Yakov Aslanov, SFedU Vice-rector for Youth Policy, sports at the university is an important part of the educational environment and helps students not only maintain physical fitness, but also develop social skills, confidence and teamwork.

The large-scale sports event brought together more than 320 students from 29 universities and 21 regions of Russia, including historical territories. Over the course of several days, participants competed in seven disciplines: sitting volleyball, boccia, darts, table tennis, chess, athletics and swimming.

The competitions were held at several venues in Rostov-on-Don and SFedU: at the Arsenal Stadium, the Meridian Sports and Recreation complex, the Milchakov Street gym, and the university's sports facilities on Sorge Street.

The organizers paid special attention to creating an accessible and comfortable environment for all participants. Volunteers and sports assistants worked at the venues, an athlete support system was organized, and sports facilities were adapted taking into account the principles of inclusion.

In addition to the sports program, master classes, trainings, educational meetings and inclusive exercises were organized for the participants. The Spartakiad has become not only a platform for competitions, but also a space for communication, exchange of experience and acquaintance of students from different regions of the country.

On May 23, the closing ceremony and awarding ceremony of the winners took place at the Rostov Regional House of Folk Art. The overall team standings were distributed as follows:

1st place — Tyumen State University;

2nd place — Russian State University of Social Technologies;

3rd place — Southern Federal University.

The Sports Without Borders Spartakiad has become an important event for the development of inclusive student sports in Russia and has once again shown that sport is truly capable of uniting people and creating a space of equal opportunities for each participant.

The SFedU expresses special gratitude to the sponsors of the event, whose contribution allowed us to achieve a high level of competition organization: the Regional Rostov Branch of the Center-Invest Bank, the Rostov NPP, the Marins Rostov-on-Don Hotel, the SFedU Endowment Fund, as well as the Time of Action organization.

The partners of the Spartakiad were: the network of resource educational and methodological centers of Russia, the trade union organization of the Southern Federal University, the Legislative Assembly of the Rostov Region, the Kuban State University of Physical Culture and Sports, the Association for the Support and Development of the NGO holding.