World Skate: A Long Path
The long path to the historical Congress that led to the current World Skate started a long time ago: in fact, it dates back to the 21st of April 1924 when the Fédération Internationale de Patinage a Roulettes (FIPR) was formed as an international sport organization to conduct rink hockey competitions between the few national federations which were already managing it on an informal basis. Two Swiss sportsmen, Fred Renkewitz and Otto Myer, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Cancellor, organized the meeting where four European countries were represented: Switzerland, Great Britain, Germany and France. The first President of the FIPR was Fred Renkewitz, who served from 1924 until 1960.
International Growth
The first World Championship organized by FIPR was for Rink Hockey (Ball and Cane) in 1936, hosted by Stuttgart, Germany, the following year saw the first Roller Speed Skating World Championship in Monza, Italy. London, England, UK hosted the 1938 Track Roller Speed Skating WC whilst the Road competitions took place in Ferrara, Italy. In 1939, the second Rink Hockey WC was held in Montreaux, Switzerland. World War II forced the stop of all competition until 1947 when international sport activity resumed with Rink Hockey in Lisbon, Portugal and the first Artistic Roller Skating World Championship in Washington, D.C., USA. From then on, the three disciplines conducted annual World Championships, expanding to include every continent in the world. In the summer of 1995, a fourth discipline was recognized and the first Inline Hockey World Championship was held in Chicago, USA. In September 2017, Nanjing, China hosted the first edition of the World Roller Games. This event included the World Championships of all the sports under World Skate's aegis in one city during a 15-day skating festival: 10 sports, 61 national federations, 193 national teams, and over 3.000 athletes. The expectations were even higher for the second edition in Barcelona, Spain, in July 2019 and have been fully confirmed: 11 sports, 76 national federations and over 4.000 athletes. Next stop will be in Argentina.
The Federation Across the Decades
In the 1960s the Federation changed its name to Federation Internationale de Roller Skating (FIRS) and was officially recognized by the IOC as the international governing body for all roller skating sports. In the 1970s, FIRS was recognized as a member of the General Association of International Sport Federations (GAISF).
The annual Congress held in Zell Am See, Austria, in 2000, authorized a second title change for the International Federation, substituting "Roller Skating" with "Roller Sports" while retaining the FIRS acronym.
Following the Extraordinary Congress resolution on September 2017 in Nanjing (China), the FIRS has changed its denomination to World Skate, the first step towards a managerial set up attentive to the needs of its base.
World Skate's branding is centered around the wheel in motion to graphically convey our mission. The moving wheel is the heart of all our disciplines and unlocks the fun and freedom that all the skating sports provide millions of participants. The colour green references the eco-friendly nature of the alternative transportation options offered by our sports while the grey highlights the urban nature of what we do on the concrete playgrounds in every city around the world.
World Skate works to unify the unique characteristics of its sports and to promote their global development.
The Olympic Dream
It has always been the dream behind the motivation, the aim to be achieved, the prize we needed to get. We had to wait until the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona where Rink Hockey was a demonstrative sport to finally watch our athletes compete on an Olympic stage for the first time. It took other 22 years to be again close to the dream with the 2014 Youth Olympic Games where both Inline Speed Skating and Skateboarding ruled the SportsLab and finally conquered a spot, respectively, for the YOG2018 in Buenos Aires and for the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020.
Current References:
Sabatino Aracu (President)
EUROS - €
Beneficiary: World Skate
Bank UBS Lausanne
Place Saint-François, 16
1003 Lausanne, Switzerland
Account n. 0243-186105.60E
IBAN CH640024324318610560E
BIC UBSWCHZH80A
DOLLARS - USD
Account n. 0243-186105.61M
IBAN CH580024324318610561M
SWISS FRANCS - CHF
Account n. 0243-186105.01Y
IBAN CH350024324318610501Y