It is an international organization run by volunteers whose goal is to collect and disseminate the statistics of track and field athletics.
[1] 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.
Note: two of the founders, Potts and Wünsche, were not actually present at the first meeting but are considered as founding members.
It is currently published under the title of Athletics: The International Track and Field Annual and its editor is Peter Matthews.
Roberto Luigi Quercetani (known as RLQ to other track and field statisticians[2])was one of the eleven founding members of ATFS and was also its first president, remaining in the position for 18 years.
[7] In 2010, under the chairmanship of Mel Watman, 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.
[16] He was a co-founder of ATFS and of the Federation of American Statisticians of Track (with Scott Davis and Stan Eales).