The Federation Internationale de Roller Sports

Origins of the FIRS Organization

The Federation Internationale de Patinage a Roulettes (FIPR) was started as an international sport organization designed to oversee roller hockey events between the existing national federations in western Europe at that time. The group had a hockey focus and originated in Montreux, Switzerland in April of 1924 by two Swiss sportsmen, Fred Renkewitz, the first President of FIPR, and Otto Myer, who was the International Olympic Committee Chancellor and four European countries (Switzerland, Great Britain, Germany and France) were at the first meeting.

• The first World Championship organized by FIPR was for Rink Hockey (Ball and Cane) in 1936, hosted by Stuttgart, Germany.
  
  
• The next world championship was conducted in 1937 in Monza, Italy for Roller Speed Skating on the Road.
  
  
• In 1938 a FIPR World Championship was held in London, England for Track Roller Speed Skating and in Ferrara, Italy for the second Road Speed Skating World Championship.
  
  
• In 1939, the second Rink Hockey world championship for FIPR was held in Montreux, Switzerland, after which all World roller skating championships were interrupted by World War II and did not resume again until 1947.
  
  
• In 1947 Rink Hockey returned with its third world championships in Lisbon, Portugal.
  
  
• Artistic Roller Skating conducted its first FIPR World Championships in Washington, USA also in 1947.

From that time on, the three skating disciplines of FIPR conducted annual World Championships and expanded to include all of the continents of the world.

Under the Presidency of Victoriano Oliveras de la Riva (1964 to 1973), FIPR changed its name to Federation Internationale de Roller Skating (FIRS) and became officially recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in the mid 1960's as the international governing body for all roller skating. There was a lot of interest in getting roller sports into the Olympic Games. The IOC recognition was a first step toward inclusion in the Olympic Games. In the 1970’s, the General Association of International Sport Federations (GAISF) gave similar membership recognition to FIRS.

Under FIRS, roller hockey became a Demonstration Sport at the 1992 Olympic Games of Barcelona. Then, the fourth discipline of roller sports, Inline Roller Hockey organized the first Inline Roller Hockey World Championship in Chicago, Illinois, USA during the summer of 1995. The FIRS membership authorized a second title change for the International Federation, substituting “Roller Sports” for the previous description “Roller Skating”, at the same time retaining the FIRS acronym, but replacing the former globe logo with the current logo during the June 2000 Congress in Zell Am See, Austria.

This early history of FIRS can be substantiated in the book “Roller Skating – History and Introduction” published by FIRS in 1982. This history was written by Rolf Noess of Freiburg, Germany, who was then the Secretary/General of FIRS, and Camille Fetler of Bordeaux, France who served as President of the FIRS Rink Hockey from 1958 until 1976 and was awarded with a FIRS Honorary Lifetime Membership.