WFDF is pleased to announce that the Slovak Association of Frisbee (SAF) was accepted as a full member of the Slovak Olympic Committee (SOC). The SAF membership was accepted during the 49th yb general assembly of SOC on 22nd April 2016, per the notice provided by SAF Secretary General Martin Keseg to WFDF.
“We are excited to announce this great news for the Flying Disc community in Slovakia and all friends of our sport around the globe,” stated Robert “Nob” Rauch, WFDF President. “This full recognition comes as we prepare for the WFDF 2016 World Ultimate and Guts Championships taking place next month in London where, we are sure, Slovakia’s athletes will perform well.”
“A growing number of National Olympic Committees (NOCs) have recognized Flying Disc and we are happy to see an active country like Slovakia be accepted as full member of SOC. While WFDF received permanent recognition by the IOC in August 2015, the decision on whether a National Olympic Committee will recognize our natioona member associations is an entirely separate process, and certain countries will only recognize sports that are full members of the Olympic Games programme. With work continuing by several of our other national members, we expect further additions to this list in the coming year.”
Slovakia joins the growing number of member associations of WFDF which are recognized by their NOCs, including Chinese Taipei, Czech Republic, Finland, Hong Kong China, Hungary, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States.
“Over the last few years the focus of the executive board of SAF was on an institutional advancement of Flying Disc Sports in Slovakia. The new SAF by-laws enabled us to implement a necessary restructuring needed to guarantee a fair representation of all flying disc disciplines in SAF and also to proceed with our application to the Slovak Olympic Committee. We are happy to be a new member of the big Slovak Olympic family with which we want to share our great commitment for sportsmanship, fairness, and joy in sport. We also hope that the SOC membership will allow us to gain more recognition for our sports and to further popularize them within the general public and media in Slovakia,” commented SAF Secretary General Martin Keseg on the development.