Number of Positions: 2

Number of Candidates: 2

Please find below the candidates, vetted by the Elections' Commission, listed alphabetically by family name.

Dustin Ciarla (HKG - Hong Kong, China)

Motivational Statement: Ultimate will always hold a special place in my heart - and my life - whether because it provided me with an alternative to intense, contact team sports; to the concept of SOTG; and to its uniquely friendly international community. I want to help share the best parts of Ultimate and WFDF values to other flying disc sports, as well as vice versa - while also addressing some areas of improvement. Most notably, I feel WFDF would stand to benefit from more sharing of views by non-ultimate athletes.

In the end disc golf remains my primary focus. I feel the sport is ripe for growth and a complement, not a competitor, to ultimate, with ultimate players being ideal candidates to consider trying and playing disc golf. I am especially interested in exploring how to help match its adoption and popularity in Asia compared to North America and Europe.

Nevertheless there are some areas where disc golf’s integration of WFDF’s value system and policy may need some adjustment, and more athlete feedback..

One instance deals with the application of SOTG to non-ultimate sports. While I am a proponent of SOTG, when I played in the 2024 WTDGC, we were required to give SOTG scores to our opponents. Some sections and their rubrics were relevant (e.g. Rules, Knowledge, and Use’ and Positive Attitude and Self-Control), however other categories were difficult to apply to the context of disc golf. The concept of SOTG is integral to flying disc sports, but how it is applied to the various flying disc disciplines may require more input from the relevant sport’s athletes and stakeholders, not only for disc golf.

Another issue needing discussion and attention deals with athletes unable to attend elite WFDF events because their specific country cannot field sufficient players to form/send a team. For example, while a number of Asian countries were able to participate in the 2024 WTDGC in Perth, not a single country from Asia will be in attendance this 2026 WTDGC. It would seem a net-positive if WFDF policy allowed countries/regions with less-developed/low populated flying disc disciplines to be allowed to form coalition teams across countries to help provide a base for elite athletes to grow and provide for incremental developmental pathways.

There are other areas also meriting discussion, including more team disc golf events other than the WTDGC (which in fact already exist and simply need an introduction to WFDF), embracing older age-cohorts in line with WFDF’s position on equality and encouraging diversity, etc.

Ultimately the views and concerns I have shared here are but a fraction of the concerns I have come across throughout my disc golf travel.  Thus if I were to be awarded an Open Member Position in Disc Golf on the Athletes’ Commission, I would take great care in discussing the concerns of the flying disc community I expect to gather from the many tournaments I plan to participate in throughout Asia and the world in the coming years."

Flying Disc Experiences: I am an elite, contact sports athlete who made his first foray into flying disc sports in 2021 at the age of 37, first with Ultimate, and in the latter years focusing on Disc Golf.

Within the first 2 years of playing ultimate I threw myself into sport at the competitive and community level. I secured roster positions on the Hong Kong Representative Masters Squad and Junk (HK’s oldest and top tier club in Asia). I also volunteered at many beginner events and raised awareness of the sport across several personal initiatives, most notably becoming a high school varsity coach for Malvern College in Spring of 2023.

By the end of 2023 I was not only awarded a spot on the HK Mixed Senior Team (and competed in WUC 2024), I was also made the interim coach until a more experienced candidate was found.

By mid 2024 I was elected as Board Member of the Flying Disc Federation of Hong Kong China (FDFHKC, formerly HKFDF) and was also selected for Hong Kong’s Mixed Masters (competing in WMUC 2024).

As a board member I helped grow the community by introducing a social league and advocating for more robust development pathways to help build a sizeable pool of elite players at the youth, senior, and masters+ level. Most notably I have taken great interest in promoting dodge disc, which I feel is an integral stepping stone in developing our youngest athletes for all flying disc sports.

Despite a full plate preparing for WUC and WMUC 2024 and being a freshly minted board member - I responded to HK’s disc golf team open tryout call made the WTDGC 2024 roster (having only played disc golf one time before). Since that competition I have had to balance my two disc sport obsessions.

On the disc golf front, I have participated in 24 Asia tournaments (and 2 in Canada) since 2024 WTDGC. In a span of 14 months I have improved my rating by nearly 80 points, and become the 2nd highest ranked player in Hong Kong across all divisions. During my disc golf competitions I became well-versed with the Asia disc golf community, most notably the key regional organizers. In Hong Kong I was the lead director for HK’s first disc golf tournament in 2025, and I just recently finished 2nd overall in the 2026 PDGA Asia Tour MP40 division. While not guaranteed, it is very likely I will be participating in the 2026 PDGA Masters Disc Golf World Championship as I am the holder of a tier 2 invite (normally the event fills up at the tier 3 level)..

On the Ultimate side I represented HK at AOUC 2025, after which my teammate and I decided to create a new masters club called Metro. The club consists of a first-ever hybrid of Hong Kong and Shenzhen players to form the first HK masters team to ever participate in WMUCC 2026. In so doing we managed to create a foundation for masters players in the greater region to gravitate towards and hopefully build a new tier of ultimate competition in the region.

In short, I am not only involved in the Asia flying disc community, I have access to a vast network and a demonstrable ability to help develop flying discs sports in my region.

Professional and Educational Experiences: One will note I have extensive experience with customer-experience focused businesses. Among the secrets of my success is my inclination to know my customer base’s needs and wants, which in turn requires a combination of social/interpersonal skills and courage to engage with all factions of a community. I have applied these salient skills since I began my venture into flying disc sports in Asia.

Moreover as the owner of several businesses, as well as a leader and coach in many ultimate and disc golf teams, events, and meetings, I am well accustomed to conducting myself according to the circumstances, whether it be professional or casual.

Ultimately I am of the view that the members of the flying disc community represent WFDF’s “customers”, and as such I feel I am most suitably qualified in liaising with the diverse demographics in Asia. I am a self-starter (and successful entrepreneur) - unafraid of tapping my various networks to act as facilitator and empathising with the different stakeholders within Asia. 

Chris Hartmann (CAN - Canada)

Motivational Statement: Having participated in three WFDF World Team Disc Golf Championships, I am excited about the potential of continuing my involvement with WFDF in a capacity of representing the voices of the Athletes to help strengthen disc golf, and all disc sports, on the international stage and to help address issues that arise in an effort to continually refine the players' event experiences. I am passionate about growing disc golf across demographics and into new areas and having an opportunity to participate on a global context seems like a natural next step for me.   

Flying Disc Experiences:

  • 13 Years of Competing in Disc Golf, 143 sanctioned events
  • Participated as part of Team Canada in WFDF Team World Championships 2017, 2019, 2022.

Professional and Educational Experiences:

  • Masters Degree in Adult Fitness and Cardiac Rehabilitation
  • Head Coach University Volleyball (8 years) and Disc Golf (4 years)
  • Partner in INdesign Disc Golf (6 years) design and development of disc golf courses
  • 32 year career as a Director with WorkSafeBC - Worker's Compensation Board of BC