World Skate, the international governing body for Skateboarding and Roller Sports recognized by the IOC, has concluded an Executive Board meeting on January 10, 2024, with statements issued by the Executive Board. These statements finalize the pathway towards the implementation of the policy for a Single Governing Body per Country.
Following the adoption of statutory provisions voted on by the World Skate Congress in 2019, in scenarios where individual countries had multiple governing bodies, World Skate offered the time and space in which the organizations concerned could cooperate in order to resolve this issue while finding solutions particular to the realities and needs of their national scenes. World Skate has never been prescriptive about what that arrangement looked like for the countries involved, allowing all possible solutions including the creation of a representative organisation composed of separate entities with financial and decision-making autonomy.
As the deadline for the establishment of a single governing body per country has passed, the World Skate Executive Board has carefully reviewed the solutions presented by the relevant member organizations involved, and enacted resolutions accordingly.
The Executive Board has been invited to decide upon matters regarding 12 countries out of 136 affiliated to World Skate: Finland, Brazil, Canada, Turkey, Georgia, Latvia, Netherlands, Slovenia , Sweden, Belarus, Russia and USA.
The decisions of the Executive Board are as follows:
In the USA, the joint effort of the existing organizations and the NOC will result in the establishment of Skate USA, within which the various sports will have complete technical, managerial, and financial autonomy; the USOPC will manage skateboarding until the end of the Paris 2024 Olympics. In Sweden this means the creation of Skate Sweden within which the Swedish Skateboard Federation will continue its activities under the auspices of a sole National Governing Body. In Turkey, the Turkish Skateboarding Federation will become Skate Turkey; in Slovenia, the new National Governing body will be Skate Slovenia; in the Netherlands, agreement between all relevant parties will form Skate Netherlands; in Latvia the Latvian Skateboard Federation will become Skate Latvia; in Georgia the Georgian National Skateboard Federation will become Skate Georgia; in Finland, Skate Finland will be created by agreement between the Finnish Skateboarding Association and the Finnish Speed Skating Association; in Canada, National Federation Canada Skateboard will become the sole National Governing Body under a new name as yet to be agreed; in Brazil where no compromise could be found Skate Brasil will be established by CBHP, while the Brazilian Olympic Committee will be in charge of the technical, sports, and financial management of Skateboarding in all its forms and disciplines including Brazilian athletes’ participation in Olympic qualifying events until the end of the 2024 Paris Olympics. In the case of both Russia and Belarus, the process leading to the establishment of one single Federation in these two countries is currently on hold due to the ban imposed by the IOC on their relevant NOCs.
The individual resolutions can be found by following the link below.
During the meeting, an amendment to a By-Law pertaining to event sanctioning adherence and promotion by National Federations was also passed, more about which can be found here, and which will also be communicated to all our recognised National Federations directly. The criteria for admission of Russian and Belarusian athletes to World Skate events was also determined and is accordingly outlined here.
The Executive Board furthermore ratified the update of WSK Technical Rulebooks for Speed, Marathon and Downhill Skateboarding
