IOU’s Guide to U24s

The World U24 Ultimate Championships kicks off on the 2nd of July in Nottingham, UK, and wow. This highly anticipated tournament is the first U24s competition since 2019, and expects to see over 1000 athletes from over 24 nations. That’s a lot of nations.

This tournament is always, always a fun one to watch. Few other World Championships are such a perfect storm of skill, athleticism and emotional volatility. Games are often packed full of heart, defined by runs of breaks and swings of momentum. This division is also famous for its feats of reckless, ridiculous athleticism, contortions of the body at high pace, with high impact, that those of us who have aged out of the U24 bracket cannot help but wince at in awe. 

‘Did you see what that guy from Latvia did?’ and ‘Did she actually just catch the trailing edge of that rank blading hammer?’ and ‘How old are these kids again?’ 

We often tell ourselves that U24s produces such heavy metal ultimate (layouts, callahans, greatests) because the throws aren’t as good, but that’s just not true anymore. Increasingly U24s is a division of maturity, of patience and skill—some of these kids have been playing for a decade or, if Dutch, more. In its past iterations, this tournament has produced some of the most thrilling contests in the history of our sport, like the Italy v USA (Opens) in 2018 and Japan v USA (Womens) in 2013, for example. There is every hope that Nottingham in 2023 will be no exception.

Nations can surprise and delight in the U24 age bracket, where the global power dynamics are in a biannual state of flux. Every tournament will produce a new batch of generational talents that you’ll be scrambling to make a note of, from countries you frankly weren’t aware were any good at Ultimate. It’s an exciting competition to be a part of and a wonderful one to watch.

We are sending the Bluebottles, the Goannas, and the Stingrays to Nottingham. Whether you’ve aged out of the division and all your bones are creaky and you wish you could go back, or you’re rising up through the ranks, there’s something magical about watching early-twenty-somethings represent the green and gold overseas. They are a true export of our community—a product of our leagues, our unis, our pathways—and we at IOU can’t wait to watch them be unleashed on the rest of the world.

This article is a quick primer to get you chomping at the bit for Sunday. IOU will be doing (trying to do) daily recaps of the tournament, but if you need more urgent content please go to our frenemies at Ultiworld. 

Bluebottles

Of all the Australian fauna that our national ultimate teams are named after, this small, entirely aquatic and mindless siphonophore has to be one of the strangest. Nonetheless, the Bluebottles first competed at this tournament in 2013, and have carved out a niche as one of Australian Ultimate’s highest-energy, highest-fun teams. Winning a silver medal after a famous semi final against Canada in 2015 and three top 8 finishes, the Bottles are a team that packs plenty of punch in the division. 

This batch of Bluebottles is a lean, fairly green, and actually very nice fighting machine. With an intensive training camp schedule between Nationals and pre-tour, the Bottles have had plenty of opportunity to pull together their disparate parts into a cohesive unit. They’ve got all the ingredients for success—big throwers, big catchers, and a willingness to hit the deck—that will be exciting to see tossed into the fiery crucible of International competition, and have got their pretour off to a flyer with a win against New Zealand’s U24s side. As is often the case with young teams, it’s the Bluebottle’s energy that will help earn them some big wins on the world stage.

Mixed is arguably the most volatile division in the U24 space, as everyone but the USA and Japan have had radically different placings across the last few cycles. It’s also a whopper of a division this time around, with 16 nations competing. In the absence of the Netherlands and Latvia, The Bluebottles are sidling into the 5th seed, along with Singapore (3), South Africa (11), and Finland (13). In the provisional schedule it looks like they’ll crossover with Pool A, which gives them a pretty interesting run into the later stages in the tournament. A big win in pool play or a crossover could set them up with an favourable pre-quarter and/or quarters clash, and their first game is against Finland on Sunday.

With a growing sense of team cohesion and an exciting draw, the Bluebottles are going to be an electric watch in Nottingham this year.

Follow along with the Bluebottles and their antics on Facebook and Instagram. Let’s go Bottles!

Goannas

The Goannas have been going strong since the dawn of the competition in Florence, 2010, and have (with one exception) been a bankable top 5 finisher. In both 2013 and 2018, the Goeys won a bronze medal off the Germans. This characteristically loud, brave, athletic and, let's be honest, dumb (but good dumb) group of young men has produced some of Australia’s best and highest achieving male match-matching stars, the likes of Tulett, the likes of Blakeley. I could go on. 

Though they still have the usual loud dumb rugged charm, this generation of Goannas is shockingly, maybe even alarmingly, careful with the disc. With some of the most competent throwers in Australia on this roster, this iteration of the Goeys is primed to make a real impact in the tournament. They’ve already racked up some strong results in their lead-in, with a victory over a star-studded Sydney Dingo contingent and WUCC 4th-place Belgian stars Mooncatchers. 

Though in the bigger of the two pools (so no bye), the Goey’s 5th seed has served them well. In a two-pool system it’s all about getting as high up the final rankings as possible, to avoid a nasty quarter final match up. It seems well within this group’s powers to disturb the seedings of Pool B, and a big win against Canada or Japan could change the fabric of the division. It’s impossible to guess at the quality of other opposition at this level, but at the very least, the Goannas are well placed. They play the Netherlands on Sunday afternoon (our Monday morning).

Follow along with the Goannas and their (presumably) loud ball sports in public spaces around Europe on their Facebook and Instragram. Let’s go Goeys!

Stingrays

If you want to talk about successful teams, if you want to talk about legacy, look no further than the Stingrays. At this very tournament in 2010, Mish Phillips caught the winning goal to secure Australia’s first ever on-grass gold medal at an international competition—not to mention the bronze medal they picked up in Perth, 2018. Also every female-matching Croc at the 2022 World Games was once a Stingray.

This batch of Stingrays is, in a word, exciting. Names on their team list are already big dogs at their club, and high impact players at Div 1 Nationals. The Stingrays just competed at the London Invite, managing to pick up some big wins and valuable losses on their rampaging run to 3rd place. There’s no better time to lose a tight game than a week before the big dance, and no doubt the Rays will be proud, determined, and ready to rock. And now they’re in a French mansion or something? 

Though the Stingrays are likely underseeded, the two-pool system is designed to give everyone a fighting chance at the higher brackets and underseeded is not the worst place to be. Having taken down the GB U24 Women’s team at the London Invite, the Stingrays will feel like they’re capable of getting some W’s on the board early in the tournament. And since the only two times when you might be actually happy to play the USA is in the final or pool play, the Stingrays will be licking their lips at a chance to match up on the tournament favourites early on—like, really early on. Like, their first game. No path to the quarter finals is ever easy, but like the Goeys, the Stingrays are well placed to smash the seeding system wide open and see where they land.

Follow along with the Stingrays and their gardening/Eiffel Towering/European summering on their Facebook and Instagram. Let’s go Stingers!

How to watch and consume

Official tournament streaming partner (Ultiworld) will be filming every day of the U24 World Ultimate Championship, and there’s plenty of ultimate coming our way at pretty good times locally. But you have to pay for it.

The tournament’s unofficial zany daily recaps partner (IOU) will be doing a summary of the interesting games and the progress of the Australian teams every day (hopefully). And it’s free!

It’s not too late to send your love to these athletes. Only a few days now before the kick off of the biggest and most exciting tournament of their young lives, I’m sure they’d appreciate a sincere good luck from anyone watching on from home. You can feel quite disconnected from the community when playing at an international tournament, so remember to send them some love and support throughout the week (and not just when they win on the stream)!

And finally, if you’re a player competing at the tournament and you have the emotional and physical space to sling IOU the odd insight, interesting tidbit, or piece of breaking news to spice up our recaps, please feel free! 

Good luck to all the athletes competing!