The Global Adventure Racing Community is Coming Together

Press Release / 28.02.2023

A positive outcome from the meeting called by FISO (World Obstacle) on Saturday, 18 February 2023 – the one about the formation of an International Adventure Racing Federation and the proposal that this Federation resides under World Obstacle, is that the Adventure Racing community have united to discuss their future.

This is not the first time that the topic of an International Federation has come up, but this time the Adventure Racing community is wider and more connected, and they want to determine the direction of their sport together.

A working group was formed and over the past 10 days they have reached out to country representatives to collect information and recruit contributors.

The group has distributed an invitation for representatives to attend one of two Zoom meetings to be held this Thursday, 2 March 2023 and on Saturday, 4 March 2023 to accommodate different time zones and weekday vs weekend availability. The agenda for each meeting will be the same. Participants have been asked to review the minutes and notes from the FISO meeting.

The group asks the country representatives for their views on:

- the structural options available to Adventure Racing
- the necessity of an International Federation for Adventure Racing
- the proposal from FISO (World Obstacle)
- the next steps in the process.

After this meeting, the group will compile the feedback to establish a structured agenda for a decision-making meeting.

FISO has been notified of this meeting and the post-meeting notes will be copied to them. AR World Series and A1 have also been notified of this meeting. Existing outside of the National and International body hierarchy, these two event coordinating companies are valued in the sport but they are not included in the working group. Like FISO, they too will be kept informed.

The working group is coordinated by Cormac Mac Donnell (Ireland) and Lars Bukkehave (Denmark, currently living in Norway) with support from Lisa de Speville (South Africa) and Damon de Boor (UK).

Representatives from the following countries are participating in these initial discussions: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Paraguay, South Africa, Spain, UK, Uruguay, and USA.

The group welcomes participants from other countries. If you would like to be involved as a representative of adventure racing in your country, please contact Cormac MacDonnell, cormacmacdonnell@gmail.com and Lars Bukkehave, larsbukkehave@gmail.com..