Official statement by WFDF regarding its Director of Global Communications and New Media
22 July 2017
In light of recent posts and exchanges made on his personal twitter account by WFDF’s Director of Global Communications and New Media, Rob McLeod, on gender issues, the World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) would like to clarify our position on the topic and the personal comments that were made.
Gender Equity and Equality is a core value of our federation and sport and WFDF believes strongly in ensuring opportunities for girls and women are equal to that of boys and men both on and off the field. It is important for WFDF to make very clear that we do not agree with, nor endorse, the content of the tweets made by Rob McLeod over the past 48 hours. These comments were inappropriate and do not reflect WFDF’s values or stated priorities.
Rob has worked diligently for WFDF over the past year and his never ending effort and passion for and promotion of the sport of Flying Disc has been beneficial in many ways. Rob nonetheless has acknowledged that any social media comments expressed by any WFDF official, either on the official WFDF Social Media Channels or through use of their own private accounts, reflect directly on the perception of WFDF and what it stands for. He realizes that he can no longer be effective as a spokesperson for WFDF due to the loss of trust in his judgment and therefore has resigned from the position of WFDF Director of Global Communications effective immediately.
“Rob has made many valuable contributions to WFDF and the global disc sports community through his work over the last year for which we thank him but, notwithstanding that, we at WFDF cannot tolerate comments by a staff member that conflict so jarringly with one of our core values, whether inadvertent or not,” stated Robert “Nob” Rauch, WFDF President. “Especially on this first day of The World Games, where we feature mixed gender Ultimate comprised of teams with athlete rosters with equal numbers of men and women, such comments are discordant with our innate beliefs. At our most recent board meeting we had approved the new membership of the WFDF Women in Sport Commission and we will task them with a complete review of this situation to see what more we should be doing both inside our organization and throughout the community to do a better job on this.”
Regarding the issue of commentating on the television and livestream broadcasts, which precipitated the discussion, we must note that WFDF only has limited input into the structure of the event, as this is a multi-sports event that is not run by WFDF. The Olympic Channel is handling all the broadcasting, and decided that all commentating would be done in their headquarters in Madrid. We had decided to put together a team with Tom Styles, who has significant experience with WFDF and UK Ultimate events, to commentate from the studio in Madrid. For local color coverage and interviews in Wroclaw, we selected Caroline “Caz” Malone, a WFDF board member and professional broadcast journalist, to lead the team at the venue. After the discussion yesterday, we got the approval to bring in a second commentator to the studio. Hannah Pendlebury, a British Ultimate player and organizer and writer with commentary experience in Basketball, Cricket, and Ultimate, will join Tom for the broadcasting on the final two days of action this Saturday and Sunday.
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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