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 2018 - Official Communication 
WFDF is pleased to announce that the WFDF 2020 World Junior Ultimate Championships (WJUC) will be hosted by the city of Malmö, Sweden, from Saturday 18th July to Saturday 25th July, 2020. The event will feature national Ultimate teams in the Men’s Under-20 and Women’s Under-20 divisions.
The successful bid came from the local club team Kockums Ultimate in cooperation with regional teams and key persons in Sweden and Denmark, supported by the Swedish Ultimate Federation (SUF) and in a close cooperation with the City of Malmö. The organization is headed by Mattias Ahlgren and Dan Engström, who both have significant experience in hosting national and international Ultimate events.
07 August 2018 - Official Communication
Four American teams took home top honors as the WFDF 2018 World Masters Ultimate Club Championships came to a close on Saturday, August 4. The event, hosted in Winnipeg, Canada at the Little Mountain Sportsplex and Independent Jewelers Ultimate Park, saw 1,716 players on 72 teams from 13 countries compete for six days. Teams represented masters’ athletes on clubs from Australia, Colombia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Great Britain and the USA.
29 July 2018 - Official Communication
The World Flying Disc Federation opens the WFDF 2018 World Masters Ultimate Club Championships in Winnipeg, Canada on Sunday the 29th of July. The event runs until Saturday the 4th of August at Little Mountain Sportsplex and Independent Jewelers Ultimate Park. It is hosted by the tournament organizing committee, Manitoba Organization of Disc Sports.
Winnipeg is hosting 1,716 players on 72 teams from 13 countries at WMUCC. The teams are competing in four divisions: 21 Master Men’s, 15 Master Women’s, 21 Master Mixed, and 15 Grand Master Men’s teams.
26 July 2018 - Official Communication
The World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) is pleased to announce that the WFDF 2019 World Team Disc Golf Championships will be held in Estonia from August 21 to 24, 2019. The event will be held in Alutaguse, Ida-Virumaa, hosted by the Estonian Disc Golf Association and Alutaguse Eagle Disc Golf Club, with Timo Juursalu as the Tournament Director and Rein Rotmeister as the co-Tournament Director.
The winning bid was awarded by the WFDF Board and the Disc Golf Committee. Invitations and further information will be sent to all WFDF members and PDGA Country Associates in the near future.
23 July 2018 - Official Communication
WFDF is pleased to announce the results of the 2018 elections to its Athletes` Commission, where Liam Grant (IRL), Davide Morri (ITA) and Véronique Riopel (CAN) were chosen out of a field of four candidates. The election voters were the athletes participating in the WFDF 2018 World Ultimate Club Championships that concluded on Saturday 21 July in Cincinnati, USA. The three were chosen to serve on the Athletes’ Commission for a term running from 2018 to 2022.
23 July 2018 - Official Communication
Three teams from the USA, including two reigning champions, took home the top prize on Saturday at the WFDF 2018 World Ultimate Club Championships (WUCC) in Cincinnati, OH, USA.
San Francisco Revolver and Seattle Riot defended their championships and again took home the gold in the Men’s and Women’s divisions, respectively. Revolver defeated Australia’s Colony 15-13 in a Finals game that was too close to call until the very end. Riot handed Colombia’s Revolution its only loss of the tournament in a final that ended at 15-8. In the Mixed division, Seattle’s BFG earned its first WUCC title, defeating Boston’s Slow White 15-11.
One of the core elements of Ultimate is Spirit of the Game, a concept that incorporates fair play, sportsmanship, and self-refereeing on the field of play. In each division, a team is honored as the Spirit of the Game winner of the tournament as voted on by their opponents, using metrics including fairmindedness, communication, and positive attitude. In the Men’s division, the Long Donkeys from South Africa were named the Spirit winners. New Zealand’s ChCh Chicks won in the Women’s division and Belgium’s Flying Rabbits took home the Spirit prize in the Mixed division.
“We capped off eight great days of Ultimate with an exciting day of the finals championships across three divisions of play for the best club teams in the world,” said Robert “Nob” Rauch, WFDF President. “Hat’s off to Revolver for its third consecutive WUCC men’s title and to Riot for defending their women’s title; it is an incredible feat to maintain competitive excellence in a club program over an extended period. And we were pleased to see strong performance of the Australian men and Colombian women, showing they can compete with the best in the world.”
The venue for the premier club championships event for Ultimate was moved indoors for semifinals and finals on Friday and Saturday because of thunderstorms and tornado warnings. The quadrennial championship, last held in Lecco, Italy in 2014, welcomed 2,971 athletes on 128 teams from 36 countries to Ohio for eight days of competition. More than 100 games from WUCC are archived and available for viewing on WFDF’s YouTube and Facebook channels.
The action in this 50th anniversary year of the founding of the sport now moves to Canada. The WFDF 2018 World Masters Ultimate Club Championships (WMUCC) are being held 29 July - 4 August 2018 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada ( http://wmucc2018.com ). WFDF’s world championship event season will be capped off with the WFDF 2018 World Junior Ultimate Championships (WJUC), being held 18 - 25 August 2018 in Waterloo, Canada ( http://www.wjuc2018.com ). 21 July 2018 - Official Communication
Six teams have moved onto the finals of the WFDF 2018 World Ultimate Championships after a dramatic semifinals day that saw the tournament move to an indoor location after outdoor play was suspended due to inclement weather. After flash flood, thunderstorm, and tornado warnings were issued in southwest Ohio on Friday, the semifinals and finals of the WFDF 2018 World Ultimate Club Championships were moved to Wall2Wall Soccer complex in mason, OH, USA.
In the Men’s division, Australia’s Colony upset the USA’s Doublewide to advance to the finals, where they will face the tournament’s top seed, the USA’s Revolver, who remain undefeated and are the defending WUCC champions from 2014 in Lecco, Italy. Revolver won their semifinal game against Canada’s GOAT.
In the Women’s division, Colombia’s Revolution put together an impressive performance, including an end zone layout that made the Sports Center’s Top 10 plays of the day, to defeat USA’s Brute Squad. The USA’s Riot, the defending WUCC champions, bested the USA’s Molly Brown to proceed to the finals.
In the Mixed division, it will be an all-American derby after USA’s Slow White defeated USA’s Wild Card to advance to the finals against the USA’s BFG. BFG defeated USA’s AMP to earn their spot in the finals.
On Saturday, the finals can be viewed online on the Olympic Channel, Ultiworld and WFDF’s YouTube. The Men’s finals, featuring Revolver and Colony will be featured at 8:30am, followed by Riot vs. Revolution playing the Women’s championship at 2:30pm, and the Mixed division’s Slow White vs. BFG at 4:30pm, all times EDT.
Games will be played to 15 points with a cap at 100 minutes. Medal ceremonies will immediately follow each division’s finals. Today three division finals cap off the eight day championship that brought together 3,000 athletes on 128 teams from 36 countries. 21 July 2018 - Official Communication
Following flash flood, thunderstorm and tornado warnings in southwest Ohio, the semifinals and finals of the WFDF 2018 World Ultimate Club Championships were moved to an indoor facility.
The six semifinals in the Men’s, Women’s and Mixed divisions will be played on Friday, July 20 at the Wall 2 Wall Soccer complex. These games will be a continuation of earlier competition that was postponed for weather and lightning delays at the Lebanon Sports Complex. Games are scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. EDT.
20 July 2018 - Official Communication
The competition intensified at the WFDF 2018 World Ultimate Club Championships on Thursday with the arrival of the quarterfinals round.
In the Men’s division, Australia’s Colony stunned the USA’s Ring of Fire in a game that went to double game point. Colony and Canada’s GOAT will face off against the USA’s Doublewide and Revolver in the semifinals on Friday.
In the Mixed division, four American club teams will battle it out on Friday. Two Boston teams, Wild Card and Slow White, will face each other in one semifinal, while BFG will take on AMP in the other.
In the Women’s division, Colombia’s Revolution will join three American club teams – Brute Squad, Riot and Molly Brown – in the semifinals on Friday, and try to ensure that it is not an all-American final. All four won handily in the quarterfinals. Both women’s semifinals will be livestreamed on WFDF’s YouTube and Facebook channels on Friday.
Unfortunately, after a week of hot, steamy weather devoid of precipitation, the forecast for the next two days is not promising, as a large front is coming through the region with consistent torrential thundershowers forecast. It is highly likely that games may be rescheduled on an ad hoc basis due to the lightning protocol. Please visit www.wucc2018.comfor updates. 19 July 2018 - Official Communication
The fifth day of competition at the WFDF 2018 World Ultimate Club Championships was full of dramatic finishes and startling upsets. On Wednesday, 12 games were decided by a single point.
In the Women’s division, the rounds of elimination games began ahead of quarterfinals starting on Thursday. Colombia’s Revolution, HUCK from Japan, and 6ixers from Canada will do their best on Thursday to knock one of the five American teams off en route to the semifinals round.
In the Men’s division, the round of eight promises exciting action on Thursday as the three undefeated American teams look to assert their dominance. In the Mixed division, two rounds of knockout games whittled the 32 remaining teams down to a final eight.
Games to watch on Thursday include the Mixed matchup between undefeated sides Hässliche Erdferke from Germany and American powerhouse AMP and the rematch of the tournament’s opening showcase game between the Netherlands’ GRUT and Boston Wild Card in the Mixed division.
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