On Christmas Day, seven Colgate students will leave their homes and families and travel to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where they will compete in the international championship of their sport.

Only this team won’t be shooting hoops, firing slap shots, or running races; it will be trading verbal jabs with some of the best orators from around the globe at the eight-day Worlds Universities Debating Championships, or Worlds, as it is called.

“This is pretty much the be-all, end-all of debate,” explained Miranda Weigler, debate coach and organizer of the Harry C. Behler Debate Society’s trip overseas. “It’s our season, our playoffs, and our World Series all in one. People train half their lives for it.”

The team -- five first-years, one junior, and one senior -- will be the first since 2001 to compete at Worlds.

According to university President Rebecca Chopp, debate “has a long and wonderful history at Colgate but in recent years was low-key.”

These days, the sport is experiencing a revival on campus, thanks to the efforts of several passionate students and the hiring this summer of Weigler.

“Our students wanted to revive parliamentary debate in ways that would encourage more political conversation on campus,” said Adam Weinberg, dean of the college. “In the process of supporting them, we are giving them great opportunities to do fun social things that work on public speaking, analytical thinking, and political skills.”

An anonymous five-year gift from a generous alumnus, Weinberg explained, has helped subsidize the reinvigorated society’s activities. In addition to enabling the university to field a competitive parliamentary debate team, the donation has allowed students to stage on-campus events such as the recent President’s Cup Debate Tournament, and bring various speakers to campus.

It will cover the team’s costs for the Malaysia trip, too.

“It’s pretty expensive to travel to Malaysia, and we didn’t want this to be exclusive in any way for the students,” said Weigler, adding that the debaters will get the chance to visit Malaysia’s National Museum of History, sightsee in Kuala Lumpur, and experience a jungle canopy walk, among other things, before flying back to the United States Jan. 7.

And not having to worry about money, she said, has really helped team members focus on the competition.

In preparation for Worlds, the students have been holding practice debates with each other, and boning up on current events and global issues.

The team has trekked this semester to contests at Williams College, Swarthmore College, Smith College, Wesleyan University, Harvard University, and Oxford University, to name a few.

At two separate competitions — the Hart House University of Toronto British Parliamentary championships and the Chancellor’s Cup at Queens University in Canada — Colgate debaters won both the best novice speaker and the best novice team awards.

Not bad for a group composed largely of first-year students, some of whom never debated until this semester.

The competition in Malaysia, however, will be the toughest one yet, said Weigler. At Worlds, the team will not only face fellow U.S. undergrads, but anyone in the world pursuing “tertiary education.”

That means that the students could find themselves pitted against 25-year-old barristers-in-training from Australia, graduate students from Japan, or members of the Manchester Debating Union.

Colgate’s debaters seem largely undaunted by their opponents.

“I expect the competition to be extremely challenging, but I think we will hold our own,” said Pat Kabat, a junior and president of the Colgate debate society. “The topics we debate will be international in scope, so I look forward to seeing how teams from different countries approach them.”

“We will do our best, but we are younger and less experienced than most of the teams going to this competition,” said Robert Sobelman ’08. Nevertheless, he added, the trip “will allow us to learn an incredible amount and really take some new techniques and abilities home with us.”

Fellow first-year Dan Streim looked at things slightly differently: “Going to Southeast Asia, regardless of the time spent debating, should be the experience of a lifetime. I’m very excited about going.”

The other students going to Malaysia are Lindsay Bourne '05, Luke Champlin '08, Martin Pinnes '08, and Michael Sheflin '08.