It’s early morning of the Varsity ski race 2024. Not a single run has been completed but, as the skiers nervously assemble at the top of the slopes, it’s clear that Cambridge already have the upper hand.

For waiting for them at the bottom of the course is evidence of the most brazen act of superiority: the letters ‘GDBO’ have been sprayed in huge blue text against the white snow at the finish line.

Under cover of night, someone has appropriated the blue spray used to mark out the course and left their not-so-subtle message: ‘God Damn Bloody Oxford’. One nil to Cambridge, before a single skier has even left the gate.

“The rivalry is very real,” says fourth-year engineer and Ski Club co-president Jakub Nowrotek (Peterhouse), who has just taken part in his fourth Varsity.

“When you stand at the top of the slope, it’s authentic. You feel the tension. But at the bottom, we celebrate together.

The rivalry is as real as the friendship – though the friendship is probably more important.”

Because Varsity means more than just the Boat Races, football, rugby or cricket. There are Varsities in dozens of other sports and pastimes, from baseball to clay pigeon shooting, and many have a rich history of their own. (The skiing contest, for instance, began in 1922 – making it the oldest team skiing race in history.) There has been a Varsity wine tasting contest since 1953, and while Varsity cheerleading, powerlifting and e-sports are relatively new additions to the fixture list, the desire to beat Oxford is no less intense.

“As long as we beat Oxford, I’m happy,” says second-year land economist Giselle Robinson-Boutin (Caius), the current president of Cambridge Lions Cheerleaders.

“We came second in the Nationals but because we beat Oxford in a landslide it cheered us up.”

The cheerleading team train twice a week and for four hours every other Saturday, working on routines, perfecting choreography and practising complex acrobatics – known in the trade as ‘stunting’. An ultra-physical sport that draws on the skills of both dancers and gymnasts, cheerleading has recently acquired Blues status – something that leads to intra-Cambridge competition at Freshers’ Fair as the different teams try to draw the best new talent.

“We attract a lot of gymnasts and there’s also a Dance Society Varsity, so some of our team do both,” says Robinson-Boutin. “That can be a bit of an issue: the dance team get quite a scare when they see us chucking their ballerinas about during our routines.” The Oxford Sirens cheerleading team were beaten handsomely last year. “We’d hired some quite good coaches with national experience, while Oxford only had student coaches,” explains Robinson-Boutin.

“That really put them at a disadvantage when it came to competition. They didn’t perform at their best and weren’t too happy.”

It was a similar tale at last year’s blind wine tasting at Vintners’ Hall in the City of London – the highlight of the University wine tasting calendar – when Cambridge secured an against-the-odds victory.

While the Cambridge team hugged each other and screamed with delight, one judge was heard to comment: “Oxford, it seems you have a lot of homework to do.” Ouch!

The wine tasting contest is one of the most tense of all Varsity competitions, with teams of seven competing in the huge hall. Each contestant is given a flight of six white wines followed by six reds, then asked to ascertain grape variety, region, sub-district and vintage.

The teams operate against the clock, in complete silence, locked eye to eye with their foe. This is worse than any exam. “You can’t talk to your teammates, so the only sound is liquid swirling, people scribbling their notes and glasses clinking,” explains Heqing Huang (Caius), in her final year of a Sociology PhD.

The wine tasting team trains twice weekly with their coach (a former student), using their ‘bible’ – a wine tasting guide written by Cambridge alumni and Masters of Wine explaining how to identify different grapes.

Before the Varsity contest they are reminded to maintain their usual routine: no spicy food the night before and definitely no new brands of toothpaste. Preparations are completed on the train to London with a swig of wine.

“On the way, the coach will grab a high-acid wine from M&S to cleanse our palate,” says Huang. “If wine is the first thing you taste in the morning it will make you salivate and then everything will taste acidic – you don’t want that as it will interfere with your taste for the contest.”

If wine isn’t your thing, you could always retreat back to the slopes – there are no glasses clinking on the Varsity ski trip, as Cambridge exercise an alcohol ban in the week of the competition to maintain peak fitness.

After a few days of skiing from dawn to dusk, 36 skiers – 18 men and 18 women – compete in the Varsity races, watched by hundreds. “It’s very competitive,” says third-year land economist Sam Hinton (Trinity Hall).

“During term we have specific fitness and conditioning sessions with specialists who understand the physicality of skiing. We also go to the nearest indoor ski centre, in Milton Keynes.

The core of our activities are the socials, the pre-season trip in September to Switzerland and then preparations for Varsity.”

While Varsity skiing has been going for more than 100 years, Varsity e-sports is only in its 12th iteration – Cambridge currently lead their rivals seven to five.

Training takes the form of regular matches in two student eSports leagues – the National Students eSports and University eSports Masters – while the big competition takes place in Easter, often at the Red Bull Gaming Sphere in Hackney, East London.

Teams usually compete in five games: Counterstrike, League of Legends, Rocket League, Valorant and Overwatch. It’s quite a production.

“We have commentators for every game, one from Oxford and one from Cambridge, and we sometimes have a host who will hype games up and introduce the players,” says Gustav Conradie (Churchill), who is in his second year of a Maths PhD and is a previous president of the Digital Gaming Society. “We definitely like to win, but it’s reasonably friendly. There is no rage quitting, but maybe a bit of banging on the table when people lose.”

So while there may be a Varsity for everyone, it’s also not unusual to compete in more than one event. As well as demonstrating his prowess on the slopes, Nowrotek has taken part in Varsity volleyball and beach volleyball; Hinton was a member of the side that took on Oxford at rugby threes; while his colleague Huang has defeated Oxford at kendo – a Japanese martial art using bamboo – and a one-off Varsity boat race for Chinese students.

“Oxford v Cambridge is the pinnacle of sport at a university level,” says Varsity powerlifter and final-year medic Shubang Nagalotimath (Robinson).

“It allows people to have their first taste of true rivalry – a rivalry that existed before I was even born. That’s why it is so fraught. These two universities often attract a very competitive type of person; we revel in the rivalry as it is absolutely historic.

It’s something that motivates you, and as powerlifting is now a full Blue sport, we take it very seriously.”

Navigating the balance between healthy competition and something a little fiercer isn’t always easy. Following the Oxford Sirens’ disappointment, Robinson-Boutin has reached out to her cheerleading counterpart at Oxford to organise a Varsity dinner between the two teams, hoping to build bridges based on a shared loved of the sport.

There’s definitely a friendliness between the powerlifters, while Huang says there is good camaraderie across the divide among kendo enthusiasts and the Chinese rowing teams.

But wine tasting is a different matter.

“We have one goal every year: to beat Oxford,” Huang says. “It is intense. Unlike the other sports I participate in, we don’t share a cordial relationship, and we don’t celebrate with them afterwards.”

Perhaps that’s because of what’s at stake. Most Varsity matches have a cup or plate for the victors to get their hands on, but the winners of the wine tasting event get bottles of vintage champagne to take home – and a trip to Épernay in France courtesy of sponsor Pol Roger, which organises a Varsities final against the winners of other Varsity contests (including Edinburgh versus St Andrews).

That’s quite a prize. But even if the only trophy is bragging rights, it remains a massive motivation.

“With any Varsity, you carry on your shoulders the hundreds of years of competition between the two universities, and the knowledge that thousands of people have stood in the same position,” says Hinton.