Qualification is based on the 2016 World Championships results since this year's WUGC was cancelled.
January 14, 2021 by Charlie Eisenhood in News with 0 comments
In a normal year, the World Ultimate Championships determine the countries that qualify for the following year’s World Games, an invite-only elite mixed competition. 2020 and 2021 are far from normal.
Due to WUGC’s cancellation, the World Flying Disc Federation will use the results of the 2016 WUGC to determine the eight qualifying teams for the 2022 World Games, pursuant to the organization’s qualification rules.1
Those eight countries are:
- United States (host country)
- Australia
- Canada
- Japan
- Colombia
- Great Britain
- France
- Germany
Those eight countries are also the top eight teams in WFDF’s 2020 World Ultimate Rankings, though not in that order.
WFDF considered alternatives to WUGC to serve as World Games qualifiers, including a new mixed-only international tournament and even a tournament just to be held in Europe to determine the three European qualifying teams. In the end, it was determined that the combination of COVID-19 uncertainty and the burden of tournament expenses and physical toll on players was too great to overcome.
“Pushing Beach Worlds to 2022 and having World Games in 2022 — that event calendar is already quite crowded,” said WFDF Vice President Brian Gisel. “And the demands on the players that will be on such qualifying teams will already be immense, not even accounting for National Teams.”
“Making a decision about who gets in now is a certain decision that can’t be affected by the pandemic,” he added.
The 2022 World Games are set to be held from July 7-17 in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. They were postponed by one year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the previous World Games in 2017, the USA took home gold, Colombia silver, and Canada bronze.
Based on Section 2 of the Qualification System for WFDF Ultimate World Games Events, Version 2008 – 1.1 (approved May 18th, 2008, and updated in 2019) which states: “The qualifying event for the World Games will be the most recent Ultimate World Championship event, which was held at least 8 months prior to the World Games.” ↩
