Extracted from 66Club Forum...

Dear Friends of rollersports.org,

I am writing you from Beijing where, on the occasion of the XXIX Olympic Games, FIRS has been invited by the IOC at a
preliminary meeting to analyse the path and the rules to observe in its candidature as new sport in the Olympic Program..

Together with FIRS Secretary, Roberto Marotta, I met the IOC Sports Director, Christophe Dubi and the Olympic Program Director, Gilbert Felli, to be informed about the steps that our Federation can and must do before the vote in Copenhagen 2009 and that we hope could bring roller speed skating in the 2016 Olympic Program.

We stressed the importance of the official presentation of our sport in Lausanne on November 13 and 14, 2008 to let know the IOC Members the main characteristics of roller sports. As you may understand, it is an opportunity of main importance and a big project on which the staff in Rome is working hard.


We received confirmation that a IOC Member and a IOC Technician will attend as Observers the World Roller Speed Skating Championships in Gijon in September, in order to provide IOC Commission for the Program and Executive Board the necessary knowledge for the right evaluation of candidate disciplines.

Thus, we shall have the possibility to show, on one side, our skills in organising events of high level and on the other side the magnificence of a sport where well trained athletes, coming from all the continents, will compete with fair play according to the Olympic value. I believe that Gijon will be the right occasion to let the world know that we deserve to become Olympic sport.
With my best sports regards,

FIRS President
Sabatino Aracu