FIRS PRESIDENT ARACU'S INTRODUCTION
Dear
Members of IOC Sports Programme Commission, Dear friends,
I am Sabatino Aracu, President of the International Roller Sports Federation,
and I am happy to have for the first time the chance to show to the IOC the
sport, that I have the honour of representing: the Roller Sports.
At this table, together with Emilio Gasbarrone and Laura Morandi, FIRS Managers, to tell you about our world, are with me 3 former athletes of roller speed skating, acting as Ambassadors of roller sports or federal leaders.
I myself am a former athlete, Roberto Marotta, World Champion, is the FIRS Secretary General; Ippolito Sanfratello was 8 times World Champion and Derek Parra, 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 win the only medal that they had not yet won, the Olympic Gold, they had to leave our sport and go to the ice speed skating.
But their heart still beats for roller sports and they are here to testify it.
Moreover, our Federation is the only one that has produced Olympic champions without being an Olympic sport.
Now in the movie you are going to see, you will have only a taste of our world, we invite you to enter this world: it's so exciting and magical. And it represents many disciplines: speed skating, figure skating, rink hockey, inline hockey, downhill, freestyle and skateboarding.
Among all these disciplines, we have chosen the speed skating for the Olympic program because we think that now it is the most widespread, popular and athletic one.
At the end of this video, I will leave the floor to Derek Parra who with his passion will discuss the Roller Speed Skating and to Roberto Marotta who will explain the technical elements.
And now, this is our world: the world of roller skating.
