In this age of professional sports, amateur sporting events of university students garner little public attention.

Yet, that does not take away from the value of the Summer Universiade that came to a close Tuesday after welcoming some 13,000 student athletes from 143 countries around the world on July 3. Although a number of athletes decided to withdraw following the Middle East respiratory syndrome outbreak, the viral disease failed to dampen the Summer Universiade’s celebration of sports, youth and friendship.

For the first time, Korea finished first place in the Summer Universiade gold medal tally, with 47 gold medals. Among the stars in Gwangju were gymnast Son Yeon-jae, who set a record by winning three gold medals, including the individual all-around gold, and two silver medals; Lee Seung-yun, 20, who won three gold medals in archery; and third-generation Korean-Japanese An Chang-min who joined the Korean national team last year and won gold in the men’s under-73-kg event.

There were many inspiring stories, too, of athletes overcoming what seemed the be insurmountable challenges to achieve greatness. Belgian athlete Thomas van der Plaetsen successfully defended his decathlon title just six months after undergoing treatment for testicular cancer, a triumph of the human spirit. Athletes from Nepal, which suffered a devastating earthquake and loss of lives in April, did their country proud by doing their best despite adversity.

The scores of empty seats at the stadiums must have been disappointing for the athletes. At the Gwangju Universiade the sound of thunderous cheers and applause was conspicuously absent at most events. Such poor attendance, except at a few crowd favorites, is a perennial problem plaguing Korean amateur sports. However, the problem at Gwangju was compounded by the outbreak of MERS that kept fans away from the games.

It is also unfortunate that the North Korean squad withdrew from the games at the last minute. After pledging to send a contingent of 75 athletes and 33 officials, North Korea emailed the organizers that it would not be participating in protest of the opening of a U.N. human rights office in Seoul. Civilian-level exchanges between the South and North often took place in sports arenas in the past and it was hoped that exchanges between college athletes of the two countries might lead to a thaw in inter-Korean relations.

The organizers left vacant the 501 seats that were assigned to the North Korean squad at the opening ceremony as a gesture that North Koreans were still welcome to attend, and they said they would do the same for the closing ceremony.