The Association of Track and Field Statisticians (ATFS) was founded in 1950. It is an international organization run by volunteers whose goal is to collect and disseminate the statistics of

track and field athletics Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

Foundation

On 26 August 1950 at the Café de la Madeleine in the Rue de la Montagne,

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

, whilst attending the 1950 European Athletics Championships, the Association of Track and Field Statisticians was founded.. Two of the founding members, Roberto Quercetani and Donald Potts, had published in 1948 the first study of world all-time lists, A Handbook on Olympic Games Track and Field Athletics. Readers of this book were inspired to found an international association of track statisticians. One of the founding members, the Belgian journalist André Greuze, organised the first meeting on 26 August. One of the meeting's first acts was to elect

Harold Abrahams Harold Maurice Abrahams (15 December 1899 – 14 January 1978) was an English track and field athlete. He was Olympic champion in 1924 in the 100 metres sprint, a feat depicted in the 1981 film '' Chariots of Fire''. Biography Early life ...

as honorary president.

Founding members

* President: Roberto Quercetani (Italy) * Secretary: Fulvio Regli (Switzerland) * Committee:

Norris McWhirter Norris Dewar McWhirter (12 August 192519 April 2004) was a British writer, political activist, co-founder of The Freedom Association, and a television presenter. He and his twin brother Ross were known internationally for the founding of ''Gui ...

(UK), Donald Potts (USA) * Members:

(UK) - Hon. President, Bruno Bonomelli (

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

), André Greuze (

), Erich Kamper (

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

Ekkehard zur Megede Ekkehard (and Eckardt, Eckard, Eckart, Eckhardt, Ekkehart) is a German given name. It is composed of the elements ''ekke'' "edge, blade; sword" and ''hart'' "brave; hardy". Variant forms include Eckard, Eckhard, Eckhart, Eckart. The Anglo-Saxon fo ...

(

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

André Senay André — sometimes transliterated as Andre — is the French and Portuguese form of the name Andrew, and is now also used in the English-speaking world. It used in France, Quebec, Canada and other French-speaking countries. It is a variation ...

(

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

), Björn-Johan Weckman (

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bot ...

), Wolfgang Wünsche (

) Note: two of the founders, Potts and Wünsche, were not actually present at the first meeting but are considered as founding members.

Yearbook

The association has published an annual yearbook since 1951. The first edition was published in Lugano, Switzerland, titled ''The 1951 A.T.F.S. International Athletic Annual''. The editors were Fulvio Regli and Roberto Quercetani. It is an authoritative compilation of international athletics statistics and has been known as ''The International Athletics Annual'' and ''The ATFS Annual''. It is currently published under the title of ''Athletics: The International Track and Field Annual'' and its editor is Peter Matthews.

Roberto Quercetani

Roberto Luigi Quercetani (known as RLQ to other track and field statisticians)was one of the eleven founding members of ATFS and was also its first president, remaining in the position for 18 years. About A.T.F.S., Association of Track and Field Statisticians.'The 90 Years of Robert L. Quercetani'
Federaziona Italiana de Atletica Leggera He was also the editor of the first ''ATFS Annual''. and is a renowned historian and writer on athletics Quercetani was born in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...

, Italy on May 3, 1922. He was interested in both foreign languages and

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competi ...

from an early age, his study in both helped by reading foreign newspapers sent by friends from Switzerland. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, he served as a technical interpreter for the allied forces in Italy. Now fluent in English, French and German, he started writing articles for the foreign sporting publications '' Leichathletik'' of Germany, ''World Sports'' of the UK, and ''

Track and Field News ''Track & Field News'' is an American monthly sports magazine founded in 1948 by brothers Bert Nelson and Cordner Nelson, focused on the world of track and field. The magazine provides coverage of athletics in the United States from the high ...

'' of the United States. In 1948, he wrote his first athletics statistical publication (with Don Potts). From 1951, Quercetani started as a long-time contributor to the Italian newspapers ''

La Gazzetta dello Sport ''La Gazzetta dello Sport'' (; "The Sports Gazette") is an Italian daily newspaper dedicated to coverage of various sports. Founded in 1896, it is the most widely read daily newspaper of any kind in Italy (in 2018). History and profile ''La ...

'' and ''La Nazione''. In 1964 his first of many books on athletics was published: ''A World History of Track and Field Athletics 1864-1964''. He has since added a number of titles that cover the history of most of the events of athletics. In 1994, he was founder member, and president until 1998, of the Archivo Storico Dell'Atletica Italiana "Bruno Bonomelli", an Italian non-profit-making cultural association dedicated to the history of Italian athletics. In 2010, under the chairmanship of

Mel Watman Mel, Mels or MEL may refer to: Biology * Mouse erythroleukemia cell line (MEL) * National Herbarium of Victoria, a herbarium with the Index Herbariorum code MEL People * Mel (given name), the abbreviated version of several given names (including ...

, Quercetani was invited, as an acknowledged industry expert, to help write the book to celebrate the 2012 centenary of the governing body of athletics, the

IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body fo ...

. In 2012, in acknowledgement of his life's achievements, Quercetani was awarded by the IAAF the IAAF Veteran Pin, their most important award. Quercetani died on May 13, 2019 at the age of 97. He was survived by his wife Maria Luisa.

Don Potts

Donald H. Potts was born December 13, 1921. A degree in physics and a doctorate in mathematics led to a creer in industry and academia, including being professor of mathematics at

Cal State Northridge California State University, Northridge (CSUN or Cal State Northridge) is a public university in the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. With a total enrollment of 38,551 students (as of Fall 2021), it has the second largest u ...

from 1965 to 1991. An avid track fan from a young age, he and Roberto Quercetani compiled from 1948 the renowned annual world rankings in

. He was a co-founder of ATFS and of the Federation of American Statisticians of Track (with Scott Davis and Stan Eales). He died November 1, 2001 in

Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara ( es, Santa Bárbara, meaning " Saint Barbara") is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West ...

Executive committee members (until 2016)

* President: Paul Jenes (

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

) * Vice President: A. Lennart Julin (

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

) * Treasurer:

Tom Casacky Tom or TOM may refer to: * Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name) Characters * Tom Anderson, a character in ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' * Tom Beck, a character ...

( USA) * Secretary: Michael McLaughlin (

) * Committee members: Roberto Quercetani (

), Rooney Magnusson (

), Bernard Linley (

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...

), Peter Matthews ( UK),

Yves Pinaud Yves may refer to: * Yves, Charente-Maritime, a commune of the Charente-Maritime department in France * Yves (given name), including a list of people with the name * ''Yves'' (single album), a single album by Loona * ''Yves'' (film), a 2019 Fren ...

(

), Riel Hauman (

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

Yoshimasa Noguchi Yoshimasa is a masculine Japanese given name. Possible writings Yoshimasa can be written using many different combinations of kanji characters. Here are some examples: *義正, "justice, righteous" *義政, "justice, politics" *義昌, "justice, ...

(

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

Eduardo Biscayart Eduardo is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the male given name Edward. Another version is Duarte. It may refer to: Association football * Eduardo Bonvallet, Chilean football player and sports commentator * Eduardo Carvalho, Portuguese footba ...

( USA), Giuseppe Mappa (

), Nejat Kök (

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...

)

Executive committee members (2021)

* Secretary: Michael McLaughlin (

)

References

{{Reflist

External links

ATFS older website that is still active

ATFS website
Statistical societies Track and Field books Track and field organizations List of sports history organisations