Dear friends,
The 2017 Sportaccord edition will be a milestone for FIRS: the first ever convention we attended as an Olympic Federation and this makes me so proud of the achievement we reached working all together.

As a matter of fact, the FIRS officially entered the ASOIF - Association of Summer Olympic International Federations - together with the other federations that will be part of the Olympic Programme in both Buenos Aires 2018 and Tokyo 2020 and this is, without any doubt, a remarkable achievement for the entire roller sports world.

As usual, SportAccord has given us huge opportunities to meet sport people and organizations: a great place where we can share our know-how and create new networks and relationships. Besides the meetings with the Buenos Aires 2018 and the Tokyo 2020 OC, we met also many potential Host Cities: a clear symptom of the increasing interest towards our world.

As you know, I am the Chairman of the SportAccord Urban Games Commission: surely, not only for my personal skills but most of all because of the sports that I have the honour to represent and that are undoubtedly absolutely urban. I had a speech during the SportAccord General Assembly in which I emphasized the importance of bringing the sports to the people and how this kind of event could help in such a challenge. I am sure that the Urban Games will be the perfect way to combine the beauty of both city landscape and sport event: the perfect match for a healthy tourism.

Finally, I would like to thank Najing RG 2017 Organizers for the booth: a great tool to promote the event.
Looking forward to the next edition of the convention that will take place in Bangkok on 2018,

A Sport Hug
Sabatino Aracu
FIRS President