The 25th Winter Universiade started with an opening ceremony in eastern Turkey's Erzurum Province on Thursday evening.

Athletes from 58 countries and regions entered the Cemal Gursel Stadium with their national flags while Turkish President Abdullah Gul, Parliament Speaker Mehmet Ali Sahin and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan attended the ceremony.

Nearly 3,000 athletes will compete in a total of 11 events, namely Alpine skiing, biathlon, ice hockey, curling, ski jumping, cross country, Nordic combined, snowboard, freestyle skiing, figure skating and short track skating.

The games will run till Feb. 6.

Officials said the facilities built for the games cost nearly 600 million Turkish lira (about 380 million U.S. dollars), the biggest investment Turkey had made for a single sports event ever, according to the semi-official Anatolia news agency.