Two years ago, Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri was already a reigning world and Olympic 1,500 metres freestyle champion when he travelled to Taipei as the outstanding favourite. His status was well justified. He won three gold medals including the gruelling 10 kilometres open water race.

His was a well-trodden pathway. In the century since international student sport was established, the roll of honour has been impressive indeed.

American sprinter Charley Paddock had already won 100m gold at the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp by the time he travelled from the University of Southern California to Paris in 1923. He was to take part in a fledging International University Athletics Championships.

He proved an immediate hit with the French public. 

"The publicity surrounding Paddock’s participation resulted in bringing out several thousands to witness the finals," said one newspaper at the time.

Paddock did not disappoint his French admirers and broke world records on the way to a sprint double.

By the 1930s, the Games had become a good place to spot future champions.

In 1933, the 1,500m in the Turin Games offered a mouthwatering encounter between reigning Olympic champion Luigi Beccali of Italy and Jack Lovelock of New Zealand. The verdict went to Beccali, although it later emerged that Lovelock had not been in the best of health during his preparations. Two years later, Lovelock had his university gold before he too won at the Olympics.

Poland’s Stella Walasiewicz was a champion in the women’s 100m, 400m, discus and long jump – a remarkable tour de force.

The Games had become a significant part of the sporting calendar when war came in 1939.

It would be 20 years before the first Universiade in Turin brought together competitors from across the globe once more.

The writers of the official programme clearly knew a champion in the making when they saw one.

"Italian hopes rest on Berruti," they said. 

Livio Berruti was a 19-year-old chemistry student who completed the sprint double in front of his home crowd.

His work on the track more than passed muster. In 1960, Berruti came home to Olympic gold over 200m.

This was a time when there was much debate about amateur status in the Olympic Movement and International Olympic Committee President Avery Brundage was none too happy about athletic scholarships at universities.

Ireland’s 1956 Olympic 1,500m champion Ronnie Delany had combined an academic career at Villanova University with his athletic success. In 1961, he won 800m gold at the Universiade in Sofia.

Other luminaries included Igor Ter-Ovanesyan, who won three successive long jump titles for the Soviet Union.

In 1970, two future Olympic champions broke world records in Turin. Heide Rosendahl of West Germany set a new mark in the long jump and Wolfgang Nordwig of East Germany electrified the crowd in the pole vault.

The great Cuban Alberto Juantorena achieved his first big victory at the Moscow Games of 1973. His 400m win came three years before a memorable Olympic double in Montreal. In Sofia in 1977, he lowered the world record for the 800m to win Universiade gold again. Typically, he told reporters he had no idea of the pace he was running until the last 20 metres.

That night he was not the only Cuban to win gold. There was also a world record for Alejandro Casañas in the 110metres hurdles. 

"He exploded out of the blocks and led at the first hurdle. By the end he was two metres ahead of the runner-up," said reports at the time.

In the thin air of Mexico City in 1979, East Germany’s Marlies Göhr set a Championship record in the 100m and the imperious Marita Koch lowered the 200m time. Their records still stand today.

In 1981, the Moroccan Saïd Aouita stood on the threshold of a magnificent career. He lived up to his nickname, 'the Aouita Express', by setting a Games record in the 1,500m.

Doina Melinte won the women’s 800m and like Aouita she would win Olympic gold in 1984.

In 1970, the Soviet basketballers had served notice of their potential with gold at the Universiade in Turin. Their team included Ivan Edeshko and Alexandr Belov. These two were the key protagonists in the final dramatic moments of the Olympic final of 1972 in which a first Olympic basketball defeat was inflicted on the United States.

The Americans were on the end of a shock of almost equal proportions at the 1983 Edmonton Universiade.

They had won the previous four tournaments and had included Larry Bird in their squad at the previous Games.

In 1983, they were led by Charles Barkley but even he could not prevent a semi-final defeat to host nation Canada, who went on to win gold.

Tennis was one of the original sports at the Universiade and some notable names figure in the early years. The early 1960s proved a purple patch for Niki Pilić, who partnered with Boro Jovanović for the men's doubles title. The pairing reached the Wimbledon final together and won gold in the Mediterranean Games in, of all places, Naples.

In 1965, the men’s singles tournament was won by Romanian student Ion Țiriac but he would become better known as an advisor to his countryman Ilie Năstase and Boris Becker. Among the players who went out early was Jan Kodeš, representing Czechoslovakia, who later won Wimbledon in the boycott year of 1973.

That was the year the whole of Moscow held its breath to see whether Olga Korbut, the darling of gymnastics crowds at the 1972 Munich Olympics, would compete in their Universiade. She was initially unwilling because the International Federation had threatened to outlaw her most challenging moves. To the delight of the Muscovite crowds, she eventually agreed and swept the board with a magnificent four gold medals.

In 1981, it was the turn of Nadia Comăneci. Universiade glory came at the end of her career. Incredibly, she was still only 19 and had achieved almost everything the sport had to offer.

"Being a student and finishing university was very important to me," she recalled.

"I knew the Universiade would probably be the last major competition of my life. The real difference when you compete at home is you feel more anxiety and more excitement."

Comăneci repeated scored a perfect 10 in the vault and then on the floor.

There had been controversy the previous year at the Olympics when the USSR took the team title.

This time Comăneci had the satisfaction of beating Soviet gymnast Stella Zakharova into second. Maria Filatova, another of the Olympic gold medalists, finished only six.

"True and fair judging was not possible today," fumed Soviet coach Vladimir Kuksa.

Earlier this year, another gymnastics superstar Svetlana Khorkina took centre stage but not on the mat. She was chosen as the Torchbearer to bring the Flame into the stadium at Krasnoyarsk Universiade.

In the pool there have been many great feats. In 1977, Canadian Graham Smith, a student at Berkeley, completed the breaststroke double at the Sofia Universiade. It was to be a wonderful 12 months for him. A World Championship gold followed and he also dominated the pool at the Commonwealth Games in his home town of Edmonton.

When the Universiade was held in the city in 1983, he carried the Torch into the stadium.

At those Games, Vladimir Salnikov of Russia emulated his Olympic exploits with gold over 400m and 1,500m.

Matt Biondi of the United States won eight gold medals in a career spanning three Olympiads. In the middle of this golden period, he travelled to Kobe for the 1985 Universiade and came away with four gold medals.

More recently, Italy’s Federica Pellegrini had burst on the scene as a schoolgirl in Athens but her 200m-400m freestyle double at the Bangkok Universiade of 2007 proved a useful form guide for Beijing where she took Olympic gold in the shorter distance.

In 2015, South Korea’s An Baul won World Championship and Universiade judo gold in a magnificent year. After Olympic silver, he returned to the Universiade mat for another gold in 2017.

Those Taipei Games two years ago offered a rich harvest of champions. In the pool, Tokyo University’s 2016 Olympic 400m medley champion Kosuke Hagino was a winner in the 200m.

Ryan Held, a Rio 2016 Olympic relay gold medal winner in the same team as Michael Phelps needed no such assistance to win the 100m freestyle in Taipei. In the relay, he joined his fellow North Carolina swimmer Justin Ress to win another gold.

Italian 2014 Youth Olympic champion Simona Quadarella demonstrated the gold medal pathway from school to university with an 800m-1500m freestyle double, both achieved in Games record times.

In the diving pool, North Korea’s Kim Kuk-hwang emulated her World Championship gold in the women’s 10m platform and followed up with synchro gold in a triumphant Games for her.

A month before the Taipei Games, András Szatmári of Hungary had won World Championship gold in the sabre. He set the seal on a magnificent year with further gold in the student Games.

Many heroes will make their names next week but what would the host nation give for another Pietro Mennea? He emulated his compatriot Berruti and proved another Italian superstar of university sport. 

He won no fewer than five gold medals in a student career from Moscow 1973 to Mexico 1979. His 200m time of 19.72 was a long-standing world record and still stands as the best recorded at a Universiade.