Dear Friends of rollersports, I am writing from Athens, birthplace of Olympics Games and seat of Sportaccord 2008. Since these first days Sportaccord has confirmed its importance as meeting and support place for the Sports World, giving us the chance to meet most important IOC and International Federations Representatives. This year and the next one will be fundamental for the continuation and the carrying out of FIRS Olympic Project which will have its crucial moment in Copenhagen in 2009 through the voting of the new Olympic Program.
We have been selected together with other six disciplines for the inclusion in 2016 Olympics and it has become necessary to go on with the significant Olympic promotion work which we carried on until now.
Together with FIRS Secretary General, Mr Roberto Marotta, FIRS Olympic Project Director, Luciano Barra and FIRS team, on 2nd June I met in an official meeting the new IOC Sport Director Mr. Christophe Dubi and his staff in order to talk about the promotional activities to carry out, being our Sport one of the seven disciplines candidate for Olympic Program inclusion. Much has changed in comparison with 2005 Singapore vote, when many IOC Members did not have any idea about the disciplines for which they were going to vote. First of all IOC Members know Roller Sports now, some of them saw our on live events and had the chance to see also the promotional video presented, for the very first time, at Sportaccord this year (to have a look at it click here). Moreover the IOC understood the importance of valuing the disciplines apart from their economical strength and only up to their sport significance.
We wil keep on sending promotional material to the IOC Members in order to let them know what our sport really is: photos, audio-video, brochures. Our events will be observed till the first semester of 2009 and we will promote our sport throughout traditional ways and new strategies. For this reason I remind you to focus all your attention in the organisation of World and Continental Championships to obtain high quality standards.
The meeting with Mr. Dubi has been really remarkable and that is also because of the opportunity we had to show him promotional material properly arranged – videos and brochures –. This gave us clear directions about the steps to take till September 2009.
We have to make en effort and go on with it so that the hard work which brought FIRS to this important meeting would be enforced by co-operation and by our unity, in order to gain the Olympic goal in 2009. We have to work together on some points: from the optimum organization of our events to our sport promotion using all our strength.
