(Story & Photos by Mateo Velasco, PDGA #190801)

Bogota is one of the cities in Colombia that, despite its structural limitations, has bet on positioning Disc Golf as a competitive sport and a recreational activity among its inhabitants.

Thanks to PDGA members Nicolas Restrepo and Julio Castro and other players, the sport has grown considerably in our city.

In 2015, the sport was first practiced in Bogota, when several Ultimate players brought the first Disc Golf discs to the city and led the first activities and meetings of Disc Golf at the National University of Colombia; this is when Disc Golf first appeared in our city. In 2020, Julio Castro had the idea of gathering players and stakeholders in a putting tournament at the Simon Bolivar Metropolitan Park; from that event the initiative of organizing attendees in a club and later in a wider community took place.

Learn More About the PDGA's Marco Polo Program »

Today, we can proudly say that we have five courses designed for Disc Golf, which although not being permanent, do not represent limitations for this community to continue growing to this day.

The Bogota Plays Disc Golf project was born as an initiative to promote the sport in the city and in the wider region, born from players´ conversations and the Disc Golf needs we have in Colombia. The Bogota Plays Disc Golf project was a project supported by PDGA´s Marco Polo program with the participation of children, youth and adults who were able to experience the sport through the development of the project.

Origins of the Project

At the end of 2020 the project began to take shape based on conversations with players in Bogota, about how to access a legitimate and institutionalized space in our city for practicing Disc Golf; we understood that the way to institutionalize the sport was to increase people´s participation in it, experiencing it and seeing the development of the dynamics of a game. By the end of 2021 we decided to apply for the Marco Polo program with our project, for getting inputs that would help citizens see the sport and in turn experience it, through exhibitions, lectures, clinics, and sports competitions endorsed by PDGA.

Project Execution

After the approval by PDGA, the project started with the manufacturing of baskets and the purchase of equipment such as discs for the development of the program. The design and construction of the baskets was made in a first stage by a specialist in metal work in the city; after the design and first test, the purchase of the materials was scheduled, which involved specific pieces of stainless steel and meters of chain for the manufacturing. After the manufacturing of the baskets, it was decided to use a baked-on painting technique so that the baskets would last over time and resist the blows of the discs.

Once the first test basket was ready a photograph was sent to the PDGA. The Association requested to adjust some significant details in the baskets with the objective of complying with the basic standards; lastly, after adjusting the baskets with those recommendations, the baskets were finished with more than one hundred meters of galvanized chain, which would be the last step before delivery.

Along with the elaboration of the baskets, the project attended schools, universities and extracurricular spaces that were managed for the execution of the project focused on showing people more about the sport we love. In this part of the project foundations, universities and the community surrounding the spaces where Disc Golf is practiced in the city were involved. Through community work we consolidated spaces in public schools in the city, universities and competition encounters of other Frisbee disciplines.

Achievements obtained in areas in which the Bogotá Plays Disc Golf project had an impact.

Achievements of the Bogotá Plays Disc Golf Project

The project´s first achievement was to bring Disc Golf to people from different social spheres of the city, introducing it as a sport that provides individual and collective benefits. Simultaneously, the project supported the development of PDGA C-tier competitions in the city with high quality standards, as those found in various parts of the world. Likewise, the project promoted conversations with government entities for the installation of a permanent Disc Golf course in Bogota based on the aforementioned achievements. The project also led to the first conversations with neighboring regions for using similar approaches for the insertion of the sport through schools, exhibitions and future competitions in these regions surrounding the city of Bogota.

There were several limitations for the realization of the project. First, the proposed time for the execution was very short from our part. We now realize that the project itself will not stop, because the inputs from the Marco Polo program will be used for the development of the sport in neighboring towns, something that began to consolidate in the final part of the project. We are completely sure that the equipment will continue to be used in the coming years for this purpose. Second, we did not have the complete willingness of the institutions in which we initially relied on to have a wider impact and an aid for permanent courses. In 2022, the agenda of the government institutions was modified because of the pandemic that affected a large part of their activities in 2021. Today, we still count on the willingness of these institutions and others to continue implementing Disc Golf teaching processes and the first installation of permanent courses.

We trust that the initiatives of the players in the city and the groups of Disc Golf in Bogota will grow stronger. We expect that the administrative bodies of the places where we can run and carry out the first fixed Disc Golf courses, allow our efforts to become a reality in 2023. It is very important to have the first permanent course in the city of Bogota, which can serve for the massification of the sport over the coming years. We are also confident that all the conversations that are taking place with towns surrounding the city will allow the inputs given by the Marco Polo program to reach those places when they are required.