USA Roller Sports

USA Roller Sports (USARS), formerly the United States Amateur Confederation of Roller Skating, is the national governing body of competitive roller sports (inline skating and roller skating) in the United States. It is recognized by the International Roller Sports Federation (FIRS) and the United States Olympic Committee.

USA Roller Sports has sponsored amateur roller skating competitions at the regional and national level since 1937 in figure skating, speed skating and roller hockey. USARS has been the United States representative for the International Federation of Roller Sports (FIRS) since 1972, when it obtained this designation after the merger of two predecessor roller skating federations (the Roller Skating Rink Operators' Association or RSROA, and the U. S. Amateur Roller Skating Association, or USARSA). The organization exercises jurisdiction over matters pertaining to the participation of United States roller skaters in international competition, including existing or potential Pan American Games and Olympic Games participation.

The USARS slogan is: "USARS is dedicated to creating, enhancing and conducting the best competitions and programs for roller sports. We instill the drive to win and be the absolute best… in sport and in life."

Roller sports disciplines

In its bylaws, USARS acknowledges "artistic", "speed", and "hockey" discipline categories. Its membership application for individuals, however, has additional categories "noncompetitive", "recreation", "aggressive", and, in 2006, "roller derby".

*"speed" refers to inline speed skating and quad speed skating
*"artistic" refers to roller figure skating, including singles, pairs, dance, figure, and precision
*"hockey" refers to hardball, inline, select, and "house" roller hockey on wheeled skates
*"recreation" refers to fitness skating and jam skating (recreational dance skating)
*"aggressive" refers to aggressive skating, including speed skating and extreme inline skating
*"roller derby" is a category all its own in 2006, but was under "aggressive" previously

USARS also accepts organizations (teams and leagues) and noncompeting members (coaches and officials, typically).

Olympic status

For several years the sport has pushed to be part of the Summer Olympic Games. It is part of the Pan American Games and the World Games and is noted as an Olympic Recognized sport. In 2005, the International Olympic Committee selected Roller Sports among four other sports for consideration into the Olympic Games. In particular, Inline Speedskating was chosen and submitted for consideration. In the 1990s, hockey was slated as a demonstration sport but was never added as a full-fledged member of the Olympic Games' program.

FIRS President Aracu has recently set up a multimedia site to make rollerskating sports more visible to the IOC. Enter that site from http://www.rollersports.tv/ So far figure rollerskating and inline speed skating are represented in online videos. Pres. Aracu also has posted on that site a few letters documenting some of the steps he has taken to promote international speed skating.

And, FIRS and the CIC proposed to the International Olympic Committee that inline speedskating be the rollerskating discipline presented at the 2012 Summer Games. http://olympic.patincarrera.com/eng/news.html

Controversy

In October 2001, USA Hockey, the national governing body of ice hockey in the United States, challenged USARS jurisdiction of roller hockey; however, the United States Olympic Committee continues to reaffirm the charter of roller sports, eligible in the summer Olympics, to USA Roller Sports. In the meantime, USA Hockey formed a separate branch called USA Hockey InLine that is also promoting hockey events, but is unable to send a national team to a world championship event sanctioned by FIRS. In retaliation, USA Roller Sports aligned itself with the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) to help with growth and legitimacy of its hockey programs.

ee also

*Ohio Speedskating Tour, oldest USARS speedskating league
*Roller hockey

External links

* [http://www.usarollersports.org/ Official Website for USA Roller Sports]
* [http://www.rollersports.org/ International Federation of Roller Sports]
* [http://www.usoc.org/ United States Olympic Committee]
* [http://www.hickoksports.com/history/rollerskate04.shtml History of Roller Skating: Governing Bodies]