Israeli National Girls’ Team at WFDF 2012 WJUC Achieves Milestone in World Sports Participation
23 August 2012
The young women’s team representing Israel at the recent WFDF World Juniors Ultimate Championship in Dublin, Ireland achieved a landmark for the sport of Ultimate and their country by fielding a team composed of both Arab and Jewish athletes. Prior teams at the World Junior Ultimate Championships had been comprised entirely of Jewish athletes. While other Israeli sports teams have occasionally had one or two Arab players on them, few Israeli teams have had this measure of balance. The Women’s Juniors (under-20) team was composed of 10 Jewish and 6 Arab players.
According to the Israeli team’s head coach, Miranda Roth Knowles, former Team USA World Champion player and Gold Medalist at the 2005 IWGA World Games, and current Director of Coaching for Ultimate Peace, “the team practices regularly, boasts numerous cross-cultural friendships, and prides itself on team unity, cohesion, and as being a sign of hope for co-existence. Interaction between these Arab and Jewish Israeli youth would be highly unlikely without involvement in this sport, since day to day Israeli life is mostly segregated.”
The main catalyst behind this special team is the previous involvement of nearly all of the girls on the Israeli national team in Ultimate Peace (www.ultimatepeace.org), a non-political peace-through-sports non-profit group that has been promoting Ultimate Frisbee (aka Ultimate) in Israel and the Middle East for the last three years. Ultimate was chosen as the tool for bridging the Middle East cultural divide because it is a non-contact team sport that requires intensive communication and team coordination to succeed. Moreover, it is self-officiated and there are no referees, so all disputes must be resolved by the athletes involved whenever there is a foul or other infraction (ie a conflict) before play can proceed. Ultimate Peace believes that the skills acquired in the game transfer into life beyond the sport.
Robert “Nob” Rauch, WFDF President, stated that “we view the participation of this fully integrated Israeli/Arab young women’s team as a doubly impressive achievement in this 2012 Olympics “Year of the Woman.” We fully subscribe to the ideal of “peace through sport” and are pleased that a dedicated group such as Ultimate Peace, headed by CEO Dr. David Barkan, has been able to achieve notable success in a troubled region of the world in such a short period of time.”
The World Flying Disc Federation, host of the World Junior Ultimate Championships, has partnered with Ultimate Peace for several years, including fiscal sponsorship of the organization and a significant grant award in support of a 2011 program expanding their efforts into Colombia, another troubled region. In that program, which received major support from Medellin’s local development agency INDER, approximately 40 coaches from Colombia, Mexico, and Argentina, and around 200 Colombian youth players, participated in clinics focused on promoting the five values of Ultimate Peace: mutual respect, integrity, non-violence, friendship, and fun. This was the first step in a three-year program to culminate with a program in Cali which will be held in conjunction with the 2013 World Games.
Ultimate is one of the fastest growing youth team sports in the world. Twenty countries were represented at this recent WFDF world championship tournament. For more information, go to www.wjuc2012.com .
About WFDF:
The World Flying Disc Federation (“WFDF”) serves as the international governing body of all flying disc sports. WFDF is made up of the National Associations (“Members”) that govern their respective disc sports activities. There are currently Members representing athletes in 54 countries. WFDF is a member of SportAccord and the International World Games Association, is recognized as a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) registered corporation in the State of Colorado, USA, and is a signatory of the World Anti-Doping Agency code.
About Ultimate Peace
Ultimate Peace is a not-for-profit organization which builds bridges of understanding and friendship between youth who live in communities divided by conflict, using the character building sport of Ultimate Frisbee as its tool. The flagship program in the Middle East has been providing over 300 Arab, Jewish, and Palestinian teens with diverse programs since 2009 - offerings include local team development, league competition, cross-cultural social interaction, and leadership development. Expansion to Columbia began in 2011, and new programs are being seeded in Africa, Asia, and Australia.
For more information, please contact:
Volker Bernardi, Executive Director
World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF)
Neckarstraße 11, D - 55296 Harxheim
Mobile: +49 176 64 19 77 02
eMail:
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Dr. David Barkan
Ultimate Peace
eMail:
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Latest WFDF Communiques
07 May 2013 - Official Communication 
WFDF is pleased to announce that the Congress has accepted the Frisbee Sport Federation of Iceland (FSFI) as a regular national member association of the World Flying Disc Federation.
“The approval of Iceland as a full regular member shows the ongoing support of our member associations for recognizing new Flying Disc nations. Iceland has been a WFDF provisional member for several years before this upgrade and their membership status results in all Nordic countries now being WFDF regular member associations,” commented WFDF President Robert “Nob” Rauch.
22 April 2013 - Official Communication
The World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) has announced the bid allocation mechanism for the 2014 World Ultimate Club Championships (WUCC). The event is going to be held in the city of Lecco, Lombardy, Italy.
As a principle, all countries get at least one bid for each division in which they sent at least one team at the previous edition of the WUCC, which was in Prague in 2010 (77 teams). Countries that finished in the top 10 of the open, women’s, mixed and masters divisions at the World Ultimate and Guts championship (WUGC) in 2012 get a bid for that division (38 teams). WFDF’s Regular Members who don’t have an automatic bid from the above two allocations get a single bid in the division of their choice (10 teams). Provisional Members who sent a team to WUCC 2010 get a single bid in the division of their choice (5 teams). Italy as host nation was awarded one additional single bid in the Masters division to allow at least one team in each division from the host country (1 team). For the Women’s Masters, there will be a single bid for each of six countries participating in WUGC 2012 plus 1 bid for each of Finland and Italy (8 teams). Additional quotas apply as per the table annexed to this release.
22 April 2013 - Official Communication
The Spirit of the Game Ultimate Sub-Committee of the World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) has published a 4-game Spirit of the Game scoresheet. The sheet reduces paper use by 75% and simplifies the work for teams and administrators by displaying four games on one sheet.
The new scoresheet can be found here. WFDF believes that an important part of maintaining and promoting good spirit of the game is by providing direct feedback, and we encourage the collection of spirit scores at the end of each game and the awarding of a spirit prize at the end of all Ultimate tournaments.
15 April 2013 - Official Communication
WFDF’s Ultimate Committee and Board of Directors are seeking bids from potential host organizers for the WFDF 2014 World Junior Ultimate Championships (WJUC).
The deadline for submitting completed bids for WJUC 2014 is 30 June 2013, and it is anticipated that bids will be awarded no later than end of August 2013. All potential bidders should notify WFDF of their intention to submit a bid (no actual details required) by 15 May 2013.
12 April 2013 - Official Communication
The WFDF Ultimate Committee is pleased to announce new WFDF Rules Accreditation Requirements for WFDF-sanctioned Ultimate events. The requirements, which will stipulate specified minimums of players on each team roster that are rules certified, will be introduced for all Ultimate events in 2013. As a self-officiated sport, the objective of this accreditation is to ensure that all players are fully versed in the rules to ensure that there is no confusion on playing within the “spirit of the game.” Full details regarding the Rules Accreditation Process are available from each specific event website and from the Accreditation section of the official Rules of Ultimate website: http://rules.wfdf.org.
07 April 2013 - Official Communication
The World Flying Disc Federation has announced that the 2013 WFDF Congress will take place on Saturday and Sunday, 20-21 July 2013, in conjunction with the WFDF 2013 World Under-23 Championships in Toronto, Canada. Per the WFDF Bylaws (article III, Section 5.1) any Member wishing to submit a motion for consideration at the meeting must do so not less than 75 days prior to the date of the meeting. Therefore, the deadline for members to submit items for consideration is 6 May 2013.
21 March 2013 - Official Communication
The World Flying Disc Federation is pleased to announce that the WFDF 2013 Pan-American Ultimate Club Championships (PAUCC) will be hosted in the city of Aguas de Lindóia City – São Paulo, Brazil. The event will be held from November 14-17, 2013 at the facilities at the Oscar Inn Eco Resort which can accommodate nine Ultimate fields. PAUCC 2013 expects 30 teams in three divisions of competition: open, women's and mixed. The finals will be staged in the main stadium of the city of Aguas de Lindóia City on November 17, 2013.
"WFDF is pleased to host our Pan-American Ultimate event this year in Brazil, especially with it being such an important sports market in the next several years with the FIFA World Cup in 2014 and the Olympic Games in 2016,” stated WFDF President Robert "Nob" Rauch. “We look to showcase top Ultimate competition in the region and promote our sport not only in Brazil but in neighboring countries with their fast-growing disc sports communities.”
20 March 2013 - Official Communication 
Agreement is part of USA Ultimate’s comprehensive package that features coverage of USAU’s College Championships and National Championships.
The World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF), the international governing body for all flying disc sports, and USA Ultimate (USAU), the national governing body for the sport of Ultimate in the United States, announced today a broadcast partnership with ESPN to produce and air the 2013 U.S. Open Ultimate Championships, which is being co-hosted by WFDF and USAU. The agreement is part of USAU’s comprehensive package that also includes coverage of USA Ultimate College Championships and National Championships. ESPN will produce and distribute live coverage of the US Open on ESPN3, ESPN’s live online sports network accessible throughout the USA and in 10 Latin American countries, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Malaysia. All of this professionally produced programming will be available on the USAU website 30 days following the live broadcasts, making them free and accessible worldwide.
17 March 2013 - Official Communication
The World Flying Disc Federation is pleased to announce that the Congress has approved the Uganda Ultimate Frisbee Association (UUFA) as a full National Member association. The Portuguese Association of Ultimate and Disc Sports (APUDD) was also upgraded from Provisional member to full National Member association. The acceptance of these two new regular members brings the WFDF membership to 58 member associations in 55 countries.
“We are excited to see both of these associations approved for full National Membership. We are particularly pleased to accept a new member from the African continent where there has been a growing interest in disc sports,” commented WFDF President Robert “Nob” Rauch. “And, of course, it is gratifying to see the progress that has been made in Portugal in the three years since they were first accepted as a Provisional Member.”
“The newly established WFDF Sport for All and Development Commission will provide guidance and support for all disc sports group in countries that have yet to become members as we encourage them to consider WFDF membership. I welcome President Alex Matovu from UUFA in Uganda as a member of this Commission and am certain he will be focused on supporting his disc sport neighbors in Africa.” 15 March 2013 - Press Release 
The World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF), in an effort to enhance its governance procedures and to get input from leading disc sport experts from around the globe in several key areas, announced today the creation and composition of four new Commissions: Sport for All and Development, Athletes’ Entourage, Ethics, and Youth and Sport. Together with the Athletes’ Commission and Women in Sport Commission that were previously established, this brings WFDF into full compliance with the institutional framework for best practices outlined by the International Olympic Committee for international sports federations.
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