World Flying Disc Federation Receives Recognition by the International Olympic Committee
31 May 2013
The Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided on Friday the 31st of May 2013 to grant the World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) provisional IOC recognition during their meeting in St Petersburg (Russia). WFDF serves as the international sports governing body of all flying disc sports.
“WFDF welcomes this recognition to join the Olympic family and we confirm the commitment of the flying disc community to the ideals set out in the Olympic Charter,” stated WFDF President Robert “Nob” Rauch. “Our strong value of “spirit of the game” on the field of play and off of it has always reflected these principles. We thank the IOC Executive Board and administration for their support and encouragement, and our Member Associations, board of directors, and athletes for their enthusiasm and commitment to this process.”
The International Olympic Committee in its formal release stated "The EB (Executive Board) has granted provisional recognition to the World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) after the International Federation fulfilled all the criteria of the IOC recognition procedure. The EB noted that the WFDF is a rapidly growing Federation with tremendous youth appeal, a strong grounding in Olympic ideals, gender equality and good governance, including WADA compliance. The EB welcomes the Federation into the Olympic family."
"This recognition by the IOC today is a very important milestone for flying disc sports, and should greatly support our grass roots development programs in countries around the world, opening the door for our members to seek their own National Olympic Committee recognition,” commented Rauch further. “However, this is just the start of a long journey as we look to further develop disc sports and fulfill all the criteria stipulated by the IOC so that one day we will have a product which is equal to the current sports of the Olympic Games in both sports excellence and commercial interest.” WFDF joins 33 other international sports federations that are recognized by the IOC but are not currently a part of the Olympic sports program.
The World Flying Disc Federation (“WFDF”) serves as the international governing body of all flying disc sports. Since WFDF was founded in 1985, the development of the sport has been quite rapid and Ultimate and the other disc disciplines today are some of the fastest growing sports in the world, due to the simplicity of the basic rules, the speed of the game, its self-officiation, and its appeal with youth and across gender lines. WFDF estimates that there are currently 7.5 million active participants globally across the various disciplines, including Ultimate, Beach Ultimate, Disc Golf, Freestyle, Guts and Field Events. WFDF today represents 59 member associations in 56 countries. WFDF was approved as a member of GAISF (now SportAccord) and the International World Games Association in 1995, is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) registered corporation in the State of Colorado, USA, and it is a signatory of the WADA World Anti-Doping code.
Latest WFDF Communiques
24 June 2019 - Official Communication 
The WFDF 2019 All Africa Ultimate Championships (AAUC 2019) concluded on June 17 with South Africa’s UCT Flying Tigers taking the gold in the championships’ third edition. South Africa’s Catch-22 won the Spirit of the Game (SOTG) prize.
“The third All Africa Ultimate Championship was not only a fantastic championship but better attended,” said Alex “Queenie” Matovu, All-African Flying Disc Federation President. “And seeing more and more African countries not only attending All Africa Ultimate Championship but playing competitively with great Spirit of the Game makes me very happy about Africa Ultimate.”
“A great opening ceremony, great SOTG shown both at the field and off, seeing happy faces throughout the tournament, great tournament party, working with a good energetic Tournament Organizing Committee, and great closing ceremony were the best moments of 2019 All Africa Ultimate Championships.”
21 June 2019 - Official Communication
The World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) is pleased to announce that it has published the third edition of the Global Disc Sports Community survey.
The first ever edition was launched in February 2014 and the survey was designed to gather input from athletes, coaches, administrators, tournament directors and anyone else involved with disc sports from around the globe, with the second edition executed in 2016. The survey will be conducted immediately through Sunday 14 July 2019 on www.surveymonkey.com and is open to anyone.
19 June 2019 - Official Communication
The World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) has selected The Greatest Bag as the Official Bag Supplier and Friction Gloves as the Official Glove Supplier for 2019-2020, upon the conclusion of an open tender process.
The Greatest Bag and Friction Gloves will be the exclusive supplier of bags and gloves at WFDF events, including WFDF 2019 World Under-24 Ultimate Championships (WU24) in Germany, WFDF 2020 World Ultimate and Guts Championships in the Netherlands and WFDF 2020 World Masters Ultimate Championships in Australia.
17 June 2019 - Official Communication
The World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) is seeking bids for host organizers for the WFDF 2021 and 2023 World Team Disc Golf Championships (“WTDGC”). The WTDGC is the premier Disc Golf event for WFDF and the 2021 and 2023 editions of the event will look to build on the success of past championships held in Colchester, UK and Vancouver, Canada, and the upcoming 2019 event to be hosted by Estonia in August this year. Hosting the WTDGC is a chance to introduce an international sporting event to new communities, draw interest and attention to a host city and country, and generate economic impact for local businesses, while developing the sport globally. Bids are due by Friday 12 July 2019.
07 June 2019 - Official Communication
The World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) is pleased to welcome two new additions to its executive staff in order to expand its ability to support the objectives of the organization. Igor Jankovíc has joined WFDF as Administrative Coordinator, reporting to Executive Director Volker Bernardi. Patrick Fourcampré-Maye now serves as Event Coordinator reporting to Karina Woldt, WFDF’s Managing Director, Events and Operations. Both positions are a new part-time paid staff position.
05 June 2019 - Official Communication
WFDF is pleased to announce that the French Federation of Flying Disc (FFFD) was recognized by the Comité National Olympique et Sportif Français (CNOSF), the National Olympic Committee of France. The FFFD membership was accepted during the Annual Congress on 28 May 2019 after a recommendation by the CNOSF Executive Committee.
“The recognition of our French Federation is a key milestone for the development of WFDF. This is great news for the Flying Disc community in France and for all friends of our sport around the globe,” stated Robert “Nob” Rauch, WFDF President. “WFDF has been making consistent progress in terms of National Olympic Committees recognizing our member associations, with FFFD now becoming the 14th WFDF member to be part of their NOC. We are happy to see France, with its competitive flying disc program, be accepted as a member of CNOSF, and we hope that they will get even more young athletes interested in Flying Disc sports."
“The French Federation of Flying Disc is proud of the decision supported by 82% of the French National Olympic Committee (CNOSF) to join the French Olympic movement,” commented Franck Leygues, FFFD President. “Sports politics in France are changing a lot and it was an important milestone for FFFD to get French NOC recognition. This is the achievement of 20 years of work for FFFD, and we cannot discount the boost we got from the efforts of WFDF in their Paris 2024 application. The French Federation continues to support WFDF in its goal to be a part of the Olympic Programme in the future. I would like also to warmly thank WFDF Executive Director Volker Bernardi for his support in our CNOSF application, and we are certain that our experience will be helpful to other WFDF members in getting their national Olympic recognition.“
There are now 14 member associations of WFDF which are recognized by their National Olympic Committees (NOCs), including Chinese Taipei, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Hong Kong China, Hungary, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States of America. 30 May 2019 - Official Communication
The World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) is pleased to announce that its Board of Directors have approved of the Strategic Plan for the period 2019-2024, which will provide a roadmap for the International Federation for the next six years. WFDF will present its plan to its member National Federations at the Congress 2019, which will be held in conjunction with the WFDF 2019 World Team Disc Golf Championships (WTDGC) on 25 August in Alutaguse, Ida-Virumaa, Estonia. The WFDF 2019-2024 Strategic Plan can be found here.
“The WFDF board and officers will be using this strategic plan to guide our decisions over the next four years,” said WFDF President Robert “Nob” Rauch. “We see it as a document that will help us make explicit decisions about our activities, program investments, and priorities based on strategic considerations within the context of our limited resources. At a stage where the IOC has fully supported the Olympic Agenda 2020 proposals, we feel prepared for the tasks and challenges derived from these decisions.”
28 May 2019 - Official Communication
The World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) is seeking volunteers to join a new WFDF Information Technology (IT) Committee to assist the board in evaluating upgrades to its systems over the next two years and oversee the work of a paid systems administration consultant. The Committee will be comprised of volunteers from the disc community and will be chaired by Luke Tobiasiewicz. Interested individuals should submit their applications with a summary of their qualifications and areas of expertise and interest by the 12th of June to luke@teamtg.co.uk.
There are many projects that are being considered to improve the efficiency of the organization, but the following projects have been deemed to be the most pressing. Such projects can include a review and confirmation of current systems, purchase of outside systems, in-house development, development of new procedures, etc
07 May 2019 - Official Communication
The World Flying Disc Federation opened the WFDF 2019 European Beach Ultimate Championships, in association with BULA (EBUC 2019), in Portimão, Portugal on Monday, May 6. The premier European event for Beach Ultimate, EBUC 2019 has more than 1,300 athletes from 22 countries competing in more than 400 games over six days.
"WFDF is very excited for this event and, with the development of Beach Ultimate over the past several years, EBUC 2019 will be the largest continental beach tournament in history,” said Karen Cabrera, WFDF’s Beach Ultimate Chair. "The size of the event is a testament to the interest and dedication of players, national member associations, and organizers in this discipline of Flying Disc.
"We look forward to a very successful event in Portugal, and WFDF is already looking forward to the WFDF Asian-Oceanic Beach Ultimate Championships being held in Shirahama, Japan from 13-16 June 2019, our next World Championship of Beach Ultimate in 2021, and our hopeful inclusion in the future ANOC-GAISF World Beach Games in 2021," said Robert "Nob" Rauch, WFDF President.
01 April 2019 - Official Communication
The World Flying Disc Federation (“WFDF”) is pleased to announce that the Global Association of International Sport Federations (“GAISF”) confirmed that the Flying Disc sport of Freestyle will be on the sports programme of the first edition of the World Urban Games, to be held in Budapest (Hungary) on 13-15 September 2019.
GAISF Director Philippe Gueisbuhler confirmed Freestyle’s place on the competition programme in a letter sent to WFDF Executive Director Volker Bernardi. “We thank you very much for your collaboration and look forward to working together to ensure the first edition of the World Urban Games in Budapest in 2019 is a success,” wrote Gueisbuhler.
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