FIRHS vs IIHF

[Maskman]

What is the difference between these two international championships? Which one attracts the better teams? finally why is Canada not playing in the IIHF tournament (they were in it the first few years!)

[Rebecca]

Jay

If you do a search in this forum, I know there was a huge thread on this a while back (I started it) and it has lots of good info. It was within the last year I think.

Rebecca

[Rebecca]

Jay

sorry, I searched all the forums and I cannot find the thread on this!

Rebecca

[DannyG]

Thumbnail version:

International Inline Hockey Federation (IIHF), division/offshoot of International Ice Hockey Federation, came into being in early nineties when roller hockey became popular.

Federation Internationale de Roller Sports (FIRS) has been around for a very long time, responsible for international level speed roller skating, figure roller skating, roller skate dancing, all the variations we usually see on ice at the olympics, except on roller skates...

When roller hockey on inline skates became popular, both the ice hockey and the roller sports organizations wanted to claim it as their own.

They both have, each holding a world championship annually for representative teams from varous countries. FIRS is predominant in Europe, IIHF is predominant just about everywhere else, at least in terms of national affiliate organizations, and player participation within these organizations.

FIRS, largely because of its position in Europe, has been given the nod to be the organization that hosts any olympic activities, to include the World Games, and the Pan American Games. The actual olympic games, however, have not been awarded to either organization, and we must note that both governing bodies are members of the international olympic committee.

The United States affiliate of the IIHF is USA Hockey Inline (USAHIL). The U.S. affiliate of FIRS is USA Roller Sports (USARS), which two and one-half years ago, quit running roller hockey activities, and contracted with the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) organization to run them instead, under the "USARS/AAU" headline...

Both national organizations, like their international counterparts, contiue to try to develop the sport with regional/national club competition in both adult and youth levels, national team development, etc...

Rebecca's memory is correct about there being a heated discussion on this, evaluating both organizations as to which "should" be running things. At least she tried to find it, I'm too lazy to look...try something under "National Governing Body" or "NGB"...

Hope that gives you some base information...

<font color=purple>DannyG</font color=purple>

[puckholder]

Just for information. USA Hockey Inline beat Finland in the finals today 9-5 to bring home another gold medal.

[NLane]

I recall looking up the background info on the players for the 2 teams last year. The FIRS team had mostly inline hockey experienced players, the IIHF had mostly ice background players that had some inline experience. There were a few true inline players but not many.