LAUSANNE, Switzerland, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- Robert Rauch, president of the World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF), said the growth of international federations depends largely on Olympic Games revenue, and that emerging sports need greater support from the Olympic movement.
"For the financial information about what percentage of IFs' overall revenue comes from, for many of them, 60 or 70 percent or more [comes from Olympic revenue]. I think that's really a challenge. There's been some talks about revising the way they think about the program. Maybe not having such a preponderance of it," Rauch said during the three-day IF Forum, which concluded Wednesday.
Organized by SportAccord, the IF Forum gathers the International Olympic Committee (IOC), international federations and selected partners each year to discuss key topics in the sports world. The 2026 edition will be held in Baku, Azerbaijan.
"Demographics of viewers had inched into the mid-50s age range, which is not your ideal range for advertisers. So I think they realize that there was a need to shake up the same token, given the nature of the amount of revenue sharing that the IOC does with," Rauch added.
The IOC distributes Olympic revenue through the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF), dividing sports into six tiers based on their contribution to ticket sales and television appeal.
According to ASOIF, the total Olympic revenue from Tokyo 2020 reached 540.29 million U.S. dollars. World Athletics received the largest share at 39.48 million, while the International Gymnastics Federation and World Aquatics each received 31.36 million. Modern pentathlon, rugby and golf received the smallest portions at 12.98 million each.
"For sports on the program, there's a really strong invested interest in protecting turf right now. If you are on the program, you don't want to lose that access," Rauch said.
The Tokyo Olympics were postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The IOC said cancellation was never an option, as the loss of Olympic revenue would have jeopardized the survival of many federations over the following four years.
Rauch said WFDF is in talks with the organizers of the Brisbane 2032 Olympics.
"We were first recognized by the IOC in 2013. There was a formal process with the LA28 which we didn't make it. We raised our hand again for Brisbane 2032. We met with the Brisbane team about three weeks ago where they outlined seven criteria of evaluating potential sports. Were we to stake all of our claims and say we have to be in Brisbane? We'll never want to do that. We're learning every time we advance," he said.
WFDF has 122 member associations worldwide and promotes gender equality, with half its board composed of women. Flying disc, or frisbee, has been part of the World Games since 2001 but has yet to be included in the Olympic program.
"The Olympic Games is gravitating towards mobile sized pieces to meet with potential audiences. Our view is small and compacted format seems to be the direction," Rauch said. ■
