Discussion: WUOC team selection

The team representing the US at WUOC this summer in the Czech Republic will be selected 4/27 at the upcoming DVOA meet. The selection criteria is available on the OUSA website WUOC Team info

Petition information, selection procedures and the WUOC bulletin are also available on the site. Don't forget the Silent Auction to help raise funds to support the WUOC Team.

Is the rule about being born no later than Dec 31, 1996, a WUOC rule or an OUSA rule? If the latter, it needs to GO.

Straight from the WUOC bulletin

Participants of WUOC 2014
• have to be students who are currently officially registered as proceeding towards a degree or diploma at the University or similar institute whose status is recognized by the appropriate national academic authority or their country, or former students who have obtained their academic degree or diploma in the year 2013;
• must be least 17 and less than 28 years of age on January 1st, 2014 (date of birth must be between January 1st, 1986 and December 31st, 1996;
• must have a full passport-holding citizenship of the country they represent.

Pointless restriction.

I mean, if 15 year olds can go to JWOC, then, if any of them happen to be college students (and yes there are/have been some), they should be able to go to WUOC.

They can go as team leader.

Old students aren't allowed either. It seems quite reasonable to me.

how many 15 yr. old orienteers do you know who are in university??? Rule is as per the FISU.

I know none personally. But that's irrelevant...

I simply cannot think of a single good reason to have a minimum age -- something OUSA has in neither IS nor IC rules -- irregardless of where it originated (IOF, FISU, ...)

GuyO, really? Not having to babysit is one. It's a competition for young adults.

How about minimum age for driving licences? And voting? Drinking? Sex? Billygoat? What's the rush?

Why is the OUSA criteria different to the FISU criteria for eligibility?

FISU: "have to be students who are currently officially registered as proceeding towards a degree..."

OUSA: "You are currently officially registered (or have been accepted for admission) as proceeding towards a degree

No minimum age for Billygoat.

I would have been ineligible for the WUOC the summer between my freshman and sophomore years. I probably would have been pissed if I cared or was good enough.

Interesting that the NCAA rules appear to have no such restriction, so I could have played college basketball, but not have gone to WUOC. Go figure. Of course, orienteering has a ton of stupid rules, so this is not surprising.

That said, I wouldn't sweat it, Guy. The affected population is no doubt very small, if it exists at all. I think there are bigger fish to fry.

There may be stupid rules in orienteering, but this is not one of them since it's a FISU rule, not an IOF (or any OF) rule. But there are certainly bigger fish to fry in any case.

Guy leaves no fish unfried.

Let's eliminate all restrictions! The only requirement is a valid university e-mail address.

Whoooooopppp! Can I be eligible for the US team too, given I have a US university e mail address?!

As do I, and will until I die (and probably for a little while longer).

@ian: LOL!

Does community college count?

Like being in an Associates degree program

Why are there world university championships at all? Are there championships for those in apprenticeships? Are there championships for those in specified jobs, and what would they mean?

Well, there are lots of (at least several) professions that have their own Champs - they could be National, Regional (as in Europe) or World.

Police and firemen come to mind as do people working in the forestry industry (I know that ´cause I have a current European forestry champ in my club...).

Whether they mean anything is another question...

In the UK we see WUOC as a great development opportunity - it's usually the people in the transition between junior and senior teams that end up going, and the competition is high quality (but not as deep a field as WOC) and the whole trip is good fun.

Exactly. It is supposed to act as an incentive to keep people going after JWOC before they make it to WOC. Like the soccer under-23.

Actually, it is supposed to support humanist ideals.


The FISU Philosophy

The FISU (International University Sports Federation) was formed within university institutions in order to promote sports values and encourage sports practice in harmony with and complementary to the university spirit. Promoting sports values means encouraging friendship, fraternity, fair-play, perseverance, integrity, cooperation and application amongst students, who one day will have responsibilities and even key positions in politics, the economy, culture and industry. As allies or competitors, perhaps even as antagonists, these men and women will have learned how to collaborate and deal with every eventuality, whilst respecting the ethical code enshrined in these values. Promoting sports values and sports practice also implies giving a new dimension to the university spirit in study, research, and discipline, through the strong affirmation of the full humanist development of the individual and of society at large. This development is not just intellectual, but also moral and physical.



University students should be able to practice sport at the level of their choice within their university. Even if they reach a high level of competition in their sport, students should not consider these competitions as an end in itself, but as an element enabling them to develop their own potential, in the same way as they prepare for their professional life. Seeing its international dimension, FISU brings together the university community in a broader sense, necessarily transcending the conflicts which divide countries and people, to achieve harmony between academic excellence and top-level sport, or competition and leisure sport. The world university sports movement also aims to become a powerful channel of communication for bringing together the various communities, the rich diversity of which is all too often a source of conflict today. This philosophy necessarily implies that FISU not only has an international dimension, but is also independent and free, regardless of the source of financial and technical support from its institutional, academic, financial or media partners.

The world university sports movement also aims to become a powerful channel of communication for bringing together the various communities, the rich diversity of which is all too often a source of conflict today.

Apparently "rich diversity" doesn't include 16 year old college students. Whatever. So much for "humanist ideals".

In any case, we all know ageism is rampant in many domains, including those close to our hearts, but one never expected to see it at the lower end.

randy +1

Guy, as a non-hypothetical person who would have been affected by the 17 or older rule, I am completely baffled that this is a such a concern. If you're 16 and good, your priority should be JWOC (for the next 5 years!). If you need more racing in the summer, there are no shortage of high quality events, where you can also be around people your own age. WUOC's primary value, as stated above, is to help bridge the gap between JWOC and WOC. I can't remember a single junior being present when I was at WUOC, although there must have been at least one. I do not at all think it's an unquestionable good to be sending 16 year olds off to be surrounded by athletes 5-10 years their seniors.

How long until we get a 'if you don't run WUOC by age18 your career is over" posting?

cwalker +10000

Wasn't randy being sarcastic?

In the days when WOC was only run every second year, WUOC (which was run in non-WOC years) was taken very seriously indeed - some of those I ran in the 1990s had fields sufficiently strong to be not too far short of de facto under-28 WOCs. In Australia we still take it seriously as a development opportunity for those in their early years of seniors, especially since World Cup wasn't playing that role to the same extent.

Unfortunately, because IOF doesn't have a lot of control over the location or timing of the event (it's a FISU responsibility), it doesn't always fit into the international program as well as it might. It would certainly be better to have more years like 1996, when it was the week after JWOC in an adjacent country.

Apparently this is the FISU rule which applies to all world university championship sports: "The Universiades and Championships are open to all student athletes that have not been out of university or an equivalent institution for more than a year, and that are aged between 17 and 28. Any association which is a member of FISU may enter a team or an individual competitor. Entries are accepted from any country eligible for the Olympic Games and from any national federation affiliated to the appropriate international federation."

Orienteering by itself is small potatoes. The US WUOC team is miniscule. I would suggest the channel for getting this rule relaxed would be to first get the IOF on board with sending a request to the FISU board of directors. Second, other international federations which might also have young athletes should be approached and asked to sign on in suport of the request. Chess, for example, would seem a particularly likely candidate for young athletes. But if you want to pursue this, FISU board is the place you eventually need to target.

Definition of a university-equivalent is not common across countries. Saying people have to be over-17 is one line to draw. Pity the Scandis who stay in school until 19.

"But if you want to pursue this," you need more hobbies.

Disagreeing with a FISU policy is one thing; being so adamently opposed that I would work to change it is another. I do, in fact, have bigger fish to fry...

I love the humanist ideals post of ndobbs above. Sometimes I think about why we are doing all this. I don't spend time helping juniors in order that a few of them can experience beating a few others, or out of patriotism, but rather because I believe it actually makes the world a better place to build these teams and develop these young people.

As we rethink our Orienteering USA strategic plan, it's good to know what our values are - why are we doing this...

Agree this ageism is rampant in society. Especially the old discriminating against the young in hiring for jobs because the young don't "have enough experience".

Here is the Canadian team, selected on Feb 25.

Emily Kemp (Ottawa) Université de Saint-Etienne?
Tori Owen (Calgary) ??

Robbie Anderson (Ottawa) Goth U
Eric Kemp (Ottawa) the most excellent Carleton University
Damian Konotopetz (Winnipeg) U of C-
Graeme Rennie (North Vancouver) UBC

Usually for World Unis the institution is mentioned, so I've added what I can remember ;)

And the USA WUOC team is.....................??

Alison is on it.

:) super excited!!!! And looks like Canada has a strong team. congratulations to those who made it! looking forward to seeing you this summer. And finding out the rest of the USA team :)

Excellent, thanks Peter (also thanks for all your help and advice on Sat at Relays). Looking forward to learning the rest of USA WUOC team.

We're waiting on a formal announcement for the US team pending the consideration of a petition.

Now that's the way to do it.