Robert L. "Nob" Rauch

The World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) is the international governing body for flying disc (Frisbee) sports, with responsibility for sanctioning world championship events, establishing uniform rules, setting of standards for and recording of world records.

WFDF is a federation of member associations which represent flying disc sports and their athletes in 100 countries.

WFDF is an international federation recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), a member of the Association of IOC Recognised International Sports Federations (ARISF), GAISF, and the International World Games Association (IWGA), and it is a registered not-for-profit 501(c)(3) corporation in the state of Colorado, U.S.

WFDF has member associations in 118 countries (90+28) (in March 2022), from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, The Caribbean and South America (regular members and provisional members).

The early years of international flying disc play were dominated by the influence of the International Frisbee Association (IFA) which was founded by Ed Headrick in 1967 as the promotional arm of the Wham-O Manufacturing Company.

Many of the international affiliates began as Wham-O distributorships that sponsored tours of well-known Frisbee athletes.

The brothers Jens and Erwin Velasquez and the team of Peter Bloeme and Dan "Stork" Roddick made several tours of Scandinavia and the rest of Europe in the mid-1970s; Jo Cahow and Stork went to Australia and Japan in 1976 and Victor Malafronte and Monica Lou toured Japan around the same time.

Several groups of individual disc event stars like Ken Westerfield and Jim Kenner touring Canada in 1972.

Stork—starting as head of the sports marketing arm of the U.S.-based Wham-O in 1975—played a crucial role in encouraging the establishment of national flying disc associations (FDAs) in Sweden, Japan, Australia, and in many of the countries of Western Europe.

The FDAs began with freestyle and accuracy competitions but as Ultimate and disc golf caught on, the associations began to broaden their focus.

The concept of an independent world organization for the development and coordination of all of the disc disciplines began in 1980 at an Atlanta, Georgia, meeting of 40 international disc organizers.

A loose federation led by Jim Powers was formed from that meeting but never took off.

The following year, the relatively well-established national flying disc associations of Europe formed the European Flying Disc Federation (EFDF).

Over the remainder of the 1980s, WFDF took on an increasing role in overseeing and promoting international disc tournaments with Stork as president and Lindgren as secretary-treasurer.

In 1983 Wham-O was sold to Kransco and the IFA was disbanded.

Spurred on by the demise of the IFA, Stork called a meeting at the US Open Overall Championships in La Mirada, California.

A plan was presented by Charlie Mead of England and a formal decision was made to establish a worldwide disc association in Örebro, Sweden during the 1984 European Overall Championships.

This decision was confirmed later that year by other flying disc countries in Lucerne, Switzerland, during the World Ultimate and Guts Championships, and thus the World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) was born.

WFDF is a not-for-profit corporation, incorporated in Colorado, US, and it was formed in 1985.

WFDF is a member of Global Association of International Sports Federations (formerly known as SportAccord), The International World Games Association (IWGA), and the International Council of Sport Science and Physical Education (ICSSPE).

The first WFDF Congress was held in Helsingborg, Sweden in July 1985, where the first set of statutes was adopted and the first board was elected.

The first president was Charlie Mead (England), the first secretary Johan Lindgren (Sweden) and the first treasurer Brendan Nolan (Ireland).

Membership was composed of the national flying disc associations and US-oriented organizations such as the Ultimate Players Association, Freestyle Players Associations, and Guts Players Association.

Committees were established to oversee international play and rules for each of the disc disciplines.

In 1992, Robert L. "Nob" Rauch was elected President of WFDF and Juha Jalovaara become chair of the Ultimate Committee.

Over the next two years, WFDF was reorganized to better reflect the increasing growth of Ultimate and the diversity of WFDF's membership.

The disc committee structure was simplified into a broad category of team sports (Ultimate and Guts) and individual events (golf and the overall disciplines).

The role of the Rules Committee was expanded, headed by Stork, to ensure consistency and an annual rules book was printed.

Flying disc sport rose with the invention of plastic and celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2007.

On 3 December 2011, was founded in Kaohsiung, Chinese Taipei (2011 WFDF Asia Oceanic Ultimate Championship (AOUC)).

Foundation meeting: Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, India, Japan, and Singapore.

Events:

Members (25+3):

Asia:

Oceania:

Other:

In May 2013, under the leadership of WFDF President Robert L. "Nob" Rauch, WFDF was granted provisional recognition by the International Olympic Committee and gained full IOC recognition on 2 August 2015.

It is now one of 42 sports that are members of the Association of IOC Recognised International Sports Federations.

118 members (90 regular members and 28 provisional members):

Asia Oceania Flying Disc Federation (AOFDF) - (governing body of Asian and Oceanic Flying Disc) (one of the continental association of the World Flying Disc Federation).