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
16 August 2019 - Official Communication 
The World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) is pleased to announce that it has published a report of the results of the third edition of the Global Disc Sports Community survey. The first one 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. This recent survey was launched in June 2019 and responses were collected through 21 July 2019 and was open to anyone.
“WFDF thanks everyone who participated. This is very useful to our efforts to get input directly from the athletes and other members of the community,” stated WFDF President Robert “Nob” Rauch. “We wanted to gather demographic information about the disc sports community that could be used to support promotional efforts to further the sport, and to get input on a variety of topics that are currently being discussed.”
07 August 2019 - Official Communication
The World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) is pleased to announce the formation of 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 administrator.
The newly formed WFDF IT Committee will be chaired on an interim basis by Luke Tobiasiewicz and is made up of volunteers from all around the globe. Drawing experience from all facets of IT provision, the members of the committee also represent all areas of flying disc sports from Ultimate to Guts, SOTG to Streaming, Events to Governance, and more. The committee will aim to advise the WFDF board on how best to leverage IT in solving some of the challenges facing our growing sport and providing long term solutions that can benefit Athletes, National Federations as well as WFDF staff and volunteers. The members of the committee are Rueben Berg (AUS), Maximiliano Chiale (URU), Bruno Gravato (POR), Wolfgang Maehr (AUT), Sören Petersen (DEN), and Travis Smith (CAN).
05 August 2019 - Official Communication
Update follows WFDF 2019 European Beach Ultimate Championships in association with BULA, WFDF 2019 Asia Oceanic Beach Ultimate Championships in association with BULA, WFDF 2019 All African Ultimate Championships, WFDF 2019 World Under 24 Ultimate Championships & WFDF 2019 Asia Oceanic Ultimate & Guts Championships.
The World Flying Disc Federation today released the
updated World Ultimate Rankings.
These country rankings are based on the finishing positions of teams at the most recent WFDF World and Continental Ultimate events:
● Asia Oceanic Ultimate & Guts Championships (AOUGC) 2019
● World Under 24 Ultimate Championships (WU24) 2019
● All Africa Ultimate Championships (AAUC) 2019
● Asia Oceanic Beach Ultimate Championships (AOBUC) 2019
● European Beach Ultimate Championships (EBUC) 2019
● World Ultimate Club Championships (WUCC) 2018
● World Junior Ultimate Championships (WJUC) 2018
● World Master Ultimate Club Championships (WMUCC) 2018
● World Championship of Beach Ultimate (WCBU) 2017
● World Great Grandmasters Beach Ultimate Championships (WGGMBUC) 2017
● World Ultimate and Guts Championships (WUGC) 2016
05 August 2019 - Official Communication
The WFDF Women in Sport Commission held its first ever regional workshop at the Asian-Oceanic Ultimate and Guts Championship (AOUGC 2019) in Shanghai on July 25.
The event was well attended with 50 attendees from 13 regional countries, with men making up a third of the group.
Please read the full Press release here. 31 July 2019 - Official Communication
The World Flying Disc Federation (“WFDF”) is pleased to announce that its Congress has approved the Flying Disc Federation of Bulgaria (BFDF) as its newest Member association, increasing WFDF’s membership to 85 national member associations.
“We are extremely pleased to welcome BFDF to the WFDF Flying Disc family as the national association from Bulgaria,” commented WFDF President Robert “Nob” Rauch. “Expanding our membership in Eastern Europe demonstrates the growth of Flying Disc sports in that region. The WFDF Development program has targeted several additional countries in the Balkans and we are looking forward to adding other candidates for membership soon.”
24 July 2019 - Official Communication
The first games of the WFDF 2019 Asia Oceanic Ultimate and Guts Championships (AOUGC) started in Shanghai on Tuesday, 23 July 2019. Running through Saturday 27 July, this five day event is being held at Shanghai Community Sports Club in Shanghai Gaohang Sunland, People’s Republic of China.
Over 525 athletes from 11 countries will compete for the gold medal for the Asian Oceanic Ultimate Championship across three divisions. There will be 7 Men’s, 7 Women’s, and 11 Mixed gender teams competing, from Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Thailand, and Chinese Taipei. There will also be 30 athletes from Japan, Chinese Taipei, and the USA competing in the WFDF 2019 Asia Guts Open (AGO), with the victor between Japan and Chinese Taipei also being crowned the Asian Oceanic Guts Champion.
24 July 2019 - Official Communication
After six days of competition in Richmond, Virginia, the 2019 WFDF World Overall Flying Disc Championships concluded with the crowning of a new champion in the Open division, and a repeat champion in the Women’s division.
The USA finished atop the medal count with 38 medals (19 gold, 11 silver, and 11 bronze), while Chinese Taipei finished second with 27 (6 gold, 11 silver, and 10 bronze), and Sweden finished third with 19 (9 gold, 4 silver, and 6 bronze).
Sam Kaye from Virginia, USA won his first ever World Overall title and Juliana Korver from California, USA won her fourth straight World Overall title. In the Juniors division, En-hsuan Chang from Chinese Taipei and Ellie Cymrot from the USA won their first ever World Overall titles in Open and Women’s, respectively.
21 July 2019 - Official Communication
Team USA went undefeated during eight days of competition, with a combined 31-0 record across three divisions, on their way to winning three gold medals at the WFDF 2019 World Under-24 Ultimate Championships, which concluded on Saturday, July 20 in Heidelberg, Germany. The Americans took home top honors in all three divisions — Men’s, Women’s and Mixed.
Top spirit of the game prizes were awarded to Denmark in the Men’s division, South Africa in the Mixed division and both New Zealand and Australia in the Women’s division.
“It was a great week of Ultimate in the heart of Europe, and the next generation of elite athletes showed their grit and determination over the entire week while maintaining the best of spirit of the game,” stated WFDF President Robert “Nob” Rauch. “We were honored to introduce DOSB President Alfons Hörmann, IWGA CEO Joachim Gossow, and GAISF Director Philippe Gueisbuhler to the future of our sport. We also thank our local hosts DISC-Respect Sports group with the support of Heidelberg Sport and Health Office.”
17 July 2019 - Official Communication
The WFDF 2019 World Under-24 Ultimate Championships kicked off on Saturday, July 13, in Heidelberg, Germany. This bi-annual event features 1,150 athletes on 51 national teams from 29 countries competing in the Men’s U24, Women’s U24 and Mixed U24 divisions. WU24 will run through Saturday, July 20 with the finals at Heidelberger Sportzentrum Süd. After the opening ceremony was held Saturday, the showcase game saw the German Women’s team defeat Belgium in a decisive 15-1 victory.
The event is being organized by DISC-Respect Sports group with the support of Heidelberg Sport and Health Office. The Organizing Committee team is led by Mark Kendall and Martin Rasp who both have significant experience in hosting both national and international Ultimate events. The WU24 is open to all players who are fourteen (14) years old or older and do not turn twenty-four (24) during the calendar year 2019.
“It’s exciting to host our World Under-24s in the heart of Europe,” stated WFDF President Robert “Nob” Rauch. “This is a great showcase of the upcoming elite athletes in our global community and the event nicely complements our upcoming plans for working with FISU in introducing our University Games.”
More than 50 games are being streamed live from Heidelberg over the week. Ultiworld, WFDF’s primary production partner, is livestreaming more than 20 games for free on its site at https://ultiworld.com/, while Fanseat.com will livestream more than 30 games on its SVOD destination, https://www.fanseat.com/ultimate. Showcase games will also be streamed on The Olympic Channel and World Games Channel.
Distribution partner Beijing Chenyang Sports is, for the first time ever at a WFDF World Championship event, livestreaming the Arena field with Chinese Mandarin commentary throughout the People's Republic of China.
The full streaming schedule can be viewed here: https://wu24heidelberg.com/streaming
The latest news and results can be found on the WU24 website here: https://wu24heidelberg.com/live
Tickets can be purchased online at https://ticketbud.com/events/dc52a2aa-5c73-11e9-9e7b-42010a717005.
The last WU24 was held in Perth, Australia in January 2018 where the host Australian Flying Disc Association put on a very successful and popular event with 41 teams from 20 countries and nearly 1,000 players flying long distances to the shores of sunny Western Australia. 09 July 2019 - Official Communication
A group of ambassadors this month traveled to the island of Sal, Cape Verde, to introduce hundreds to Flying Disc Freestyle through demos and workshops, as part of the inaugural African Beach Games, which took place from 14-23 June 2019.
“We could not have been more pleased with the efforts of the six athletes who comprised the Freestyle official demonstration team. This is the singular largest exhibition of Freestyle Flying Disc since the 1970’s and was a perfect promotion opportunity before we see our discipline move on to the first edition of the World Urban Games in September in Budapest,” stated Kevin “Skippy” Givens, WFDF Freestyle Committee Chairperson.
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