World Juggling Federation
The World Juggling Federation (WJF) is the world's only organization devoted to the promotion and advancement of juggling as a sport (competitive juggling).[1]
History
In 2003, the WJF was created by long-time International Jugglers' Association member, Jason Garfield. Garfield attracted interest and membership by framing the skills of juggling as a sport.[2] The federation became more widely known in 2005 when Jason bought airtime on ESPN, televising his WJF II juggling competition.
Competition
The WJF's most well-known event is the WJF convention, which has been broadcast on ESPN2. The organization encourages jugglers to compete against each other in order to get better. In WJF-sponsored events, the participants use juggling props, which include:
WJF competition events sometimes include (pending enough competitors attending):
- Club passing
- 360s (and similar)
- Endurance
- Isolated Endurance
- Freestyle
- Extreme Competitions
There are "junior"-, "beginner"-, "intermediate"- and "advanced"-level competitors in each of the three main WJF disciplines.
Conventions and championships
Annual WJF conventions are held; and juggling competitions produce annual winners who are named "overall champions". At WJF 5, the top competition event ran alongside the Battle for the WJF Presidency, with Thomas Dietz as the inaugural winner, beating Jason Garfield. However, Dietz resigned from presidency soon after, saying he didn't have time to fulfill his duties as president. At WJF 7 in 2011, Doug Sayers was initially named overall champion, but due to a miscount of the scores this was proved not to be the case, as Vova had scored more points overall.
| Year | Event | Location | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | WJF Convention | Las Vegas, Nevada | |
| 2005 | WJF2 | Las Vegas | Thomas Dietz, Overall champion[3] |
| 2006 | WJF3 | Las Vegas | Thomas Dietz, Overall champion[4] |
| 2007 | WJF4 | Hartford, Connecticut | Thomas Dietz, Overall champion[5] |
| 2008 | WJF5 | Las Vegas | Thomas Dietz, Overall champion.[6] |
| 2010 | WJF6 | Las Vegas | Doug Sayers, Overall champion.[7] |
| 2011 | WJF7 | Springfield, Illinois | Vova Galchenko, Overall champion[8] |
| 2012 | WJF8 | Sioux Falls, South Dakota | Doug Sayers, Overall champion |
Notes
- Christel, Matthias. (2009). Bewegungskünste: motorisches Lernen in der Zirkuspädagogik, p. 30., p. 30, at Google Books
- Grossman, Lev. "Up In the Air," Time (US). July 16, 2006.
- Thomas Dietz, Overall champion
- WJF3, Dietz, Overall champion
- WJF4, Dietz, Overall champion
- WJF5, Dietz, Overall champion
- WJF6, Sayers, Overall champion
- WJF7, Galchenko, Overall champion (Doug Sayers had originally been announced the winner due to a math error, but Vova Galchenko ended up winning.)
