(ATR) Roller Sports federation chief Sabatino Aracu has blasted the IOC’s Tokyo 2020 inspection chief John Coates over remarks he made about skateboarding.
Coates on Wednesday suggested the IOC would recognize a separate skateboarding federation independent of the International Roller Sports Federation (FIRS). His comments followed a two-day project review which included a focus on the proposed additional sports for the Tokyo Games; five have been recommended for inclusion.
The chair of the IOC Coordination Commission for Tokyo 2020 said discussions were taking place with "a number of federations" who conduct skateboarding events globally, an apparent reference to the International Skateboarding Federation and the World Skateboarding Federation.
"I would expect that one of the federations will be identified in the near future that we will work with and recognize," he was quoted by the Associated Press.
Aracu hit back in a strongly-worded statement, saying he was "really astonished" about the comments made by Coates. Hesaid plans to recognize a federation "sound like a threaten to the process Tokyo 2020 presented during the last months".
He noted that FIRS was invited by Tokyo 2020 to participate in the additional events process "and its proposal, after months of work, was successful". Skateboarding along with baseball-softball, surfing, karate and sports climbing were proposed for inclusion in the Tokyo Olympics by the organising committee last month.
"Apparently Mr. Coates is not really in the loop of latest information, considering that FIRS has been directly in contact with his president Thomas Bach, who is the guarantor of the sport values as well as the reference point of all the international federations recognized by the IOC," he said.
FIRS has written to Bach to "clarify this confusion around skateboarding" that Aracu said was generating "a lot of misunderstanding that could seriously compromise skateboarding's inclusion in the Tokyo 2020 Games".
Commenting on the reference by Coates to a number of federations staging skateboarding worldwide, the roller sports leader said: "For the sake of clarity, there are no other sport federations that can claim, at the IOC level, to be involved in any way on the skateboarding."
He described theInternational Skateboarding Federation, which was involved in showcasing its sport at the 2014 Nanjing Youth Olympics as an "American commercial promoter who had no recognition from any sport body" such as IOC, SportAccord, ARISF or ASOIF.
Coates also suggested that a petition by skateboarders opposing Olympic inclusion was probably due to a misunderstanding. "I’ve seen tremendous support from international and national skateboarders on the basis that there will be a new federation representing them," he said.
Aracu said the petition, signed by 6,000 skaters, was against the commercial establishment of the Games not the roller sports federation."I am sure that President Bach will be soon clarifying the IOC's plans and he will finally stop all these speculations that are creating damages at all levels,"Aracu added.
Reported by Mark Bisson
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