２０１６年に向けて

１４日、ローザンヌで行われたＩＯＣでのプレゼンの模様がrollersports.orgにアップされています。

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Dear friends of rollersports.org,

I am very proud to tell you about the important meeting FIRS had in Lousanne on the 14th of November. We had, for the first time, the opportunity to show to the IOC Sports Programme Commission our sport.

At the table, to tell to the IOC Memebers about our world, were with me 3 former athletes of roller speed skating, acting as ambassadors of roller sports.

As you already know, myself I am a former athlete, Roberto Marotta, former World Champion, as the FIRS Secretary General, Ippolito Sanfratello who was 8 times World Champion and Derek Parra, who won Speed Skating World Champioships 18 times.

But Ippolito Sanfratello and Derek Parra are also Olympic champions in ice speed skating.

At the end of their career as roller speed skaters, to won the only Medal they never had the chance to win, the Gold Olympic Medal, they had to switch to the ice.

But their hearts still beat for roller sports, and they were with us in front of the IOC Sports Commission to testify it.

Moreover, our Federation is the only one that has produced Olympic   champions without being an Olympic sport.

We showed to the IOC Sports Commission five short videos to give them a taste of the roller sports and to invite them to enter our world. We told them that our Federation represents many disciplines: speed skating, figure skating, rink hockey, inline hockey, downhill, freestyle and skateboarding.

And we explained them that, among  all these disciplines, we have chosen speed skating for the Olympic program, because we believe that in this moment, roller speed skating is the one that better suites the IOC requests.
 
After the first video, I left the floor to Derek Parra, who with his passion talked about Roller Speed Skating and told to the IOC Members his experience as a speed skater that had to leave his sport to achieve the Olympic Dream. Roberto Marotta explained the technical elements of our proposal for the Olympic Games: 5 men’s races and 5 women’s races in 3 days.

50 men and 50 women selected on a continental basis could be admitted at the Olympic Games to compete, on track or on the road on the following distances: 500mt sprint; 1000 mt; 10 km. Elimination; 15 km points and marathon on road of 42,195 km. 

And now, I invite you to have a look to the videos we showed. You can find them on the home page of FIRS website and, in the next days on FIRS WebTV.

A sport hug to the whole world of roller skating,

FIRS President
Sabatino Aracu