International Orienteering Federation

The International Orienteering Federation (IOF ) is the umbrella organization for all national associations in orienteering. It was founded in 1961 and is today mainly responsible for four disciplines: the "normal" Foot Orienteering, Mountain Bike Orienteering that, the Ski Orienteering and Trail Orienteering for the disabled. The headquarters of the IOF is in Helsinki.

History

The IOF was founded on May 21, 1961 a meeting organized in Copenhagen Congress. The founding members were the national associations from Denmark, Bulgaria, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. Until 1969 belonged to 16 countries, including Japan and Canada, the IOF. Since 1977, the IOF is recognized by the IOC, but orienteering was not so far in the Olympic Games program. For ski orienteering, there are concrete plans for inclusion in the competition program of the Winter Games. Since March 2014, the IOF has 78 member associations from all six inhabited continents.

List of Presidents

  • Eric Tobé Sweden (1961-1975)
  • Finland Lasse Heideman (1975-1982)
  • Sweden Bengt Saltin (1982-1988)
  • Switzerland Heinz Tschudin (1988-1994)
  • Sweden Åke Jacobsson (2004-2012)

Members

See: List of IOF's members

Association structure

The IOF is headed by a president-elect. Furthermore, there is a senior vice president, two vice presidents and seven other councilors. Various commissions take care areas such as the four disciplines, cards or rules. The current President is Brian Porteous from the UK.

Criticism

The former Swedish elite athlete Jörgen Mårtensson criticized in 2009 in an interview IOF strong. He compared the IOF with the Mafia, in which the members were intent only on keeping their position. He expressed his discontent that the world governing body wrap further developed too slowly. It also called for a shift away from the competition format of the World Championships, which are held annually. He argued for a staging of the World Cup every two years.

East Germany International Olympic Committee Summer Olympic Games Winter Olympic Games Finnish Orienteering Federation South African Orienteering Federation
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