Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers of players, apparel, and playing surface, they share broad characteristics of two opposing teams using a stick to propel a ball or disk into a goal.
Roller hockey is a form of hockey played on a dry surface using wheeled skates. It can be played with traditional roller skates or with inline skates and use either a ball or puck. Combined, roller hockey is played in nearly 60 countries worldwide.
Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in travelling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long-track speed skating, short-track speed skating, and marathon speed skating. In the Olympic Games, long-track speed skating is usually referred to as just "speed skating", while short-track speed skating is known as "short track". The International Skating Union (ISU), the governing body of competitive ice sports, refers to long track as "speed skating" and short track as "short track skating".
The Fédération Internationale de Roller Sports was the world governing body for roller sports, including skateboarding, rink hockey, inline hockey, inline speed skating, inline alpine, downhill, roller derby, roller freestyle, inline freestyle, aggressive inline skating, inline figure skating and artistic roller skating. It was established in April 1924 in Montreux, Switzerland by two Swiss sportsmen, Fred Renkewitz and Otto Myer, who had close connections to the International Olympic Committee.
The Rink Hockey European Championship is a European roller hockey competition organised by World Skate Europe – Rink Hockey and contested by the best men's national teams.
The World Skate Roller Hockey World Cup is the international championship for roller hockey organized by World Skate. The first event was held in 1936, in the city of Stuttgart. Since 1989, the World Championship tournament is held every two years on the odd years. Until 2017, it was organized by the Fédération Internationale de Roller Sports. As of 2019, following the merge between the FIRS and the International Skateboarding Federation, the World Cup is now an event of the larger World Roller Games.
The Women's Roller Hockey World Cup is a competition between the best female national teams in the World. It takes place every two years and it was organized by the FIRS until its integration into World Skate.
Roller hockey, rink hockey or quad hockey is a team sport played on roller skates. It is a quad-skate team sport where two teams face-off against one another, trying to drive a hard ball with their sticks into the opposing teams' goalnet. Each team has five players on the rink at a time, four of whom are skaters and one who is the goalkeeper. The ball can only be put in motion by a stick, not the skate, otherwise a foul will be stated. The game has two 25-minute halves, with 15-minute halftime intermission, plus up to two 5-minute golden goal periods to settle ties with the clock stopping when the ball becomes dead. If the tie persists, a penalty shootout will determine the winner. Players – including the goalie – use quad skates, whereas inline skates are used in inline hockey. The sticks are similar to those in bandy and shinty. Excessive contact between players is forbidden in rink hockey, unlike inline hockey.
The Portugal national roller hockey team is one of the most successful roller hockey teams of the world, along with Spain, Italy and Argentina.
The World Skate Europe Rink Hockey, formerly known as Comité Européen de Rink-Hockey, is a technical committee within World Skate Europe responsible for the governing of rink hockey in Europe.
The WSE Rink Hockey European Championship Women, abbreviated WSE Euro Women, is the premier rink hockey competition for women's national teams in Europe. It was previously known as the Rink Hockey Female European Championship and the CERH European Women's Roller Hockey Championship, abbreviated CERH Women's Euro. The championship is organized by World Skate Europe Rink Hockey and was first contested in 1991. Tournaments are held every two years.
The Rink Hockey American Championship or CSP Copa America is a Rink Hockey competition with the national teams of American countries that happens every four years. It is organized by CSP, South American Federation of Rink Hockey.
The Premier League is the main competition in England Roller Hockey. It has a long history, and it has existed since 1930. It has some of the most historic European teams like Herne Bay and Herne Bay United. The top teams usually compete in European Club Competitions like European League or Cers Cup now organised by World Skate Europe - Rink Hockey.
The Israel Roller Hockey League is the biggest Roller Hockey Clubs Championship in Israel.
England Roller Hockey, which originated in England, is a game played on roller-skates with a ball and stick. It was first played at The Lava Rink in Denmark Hill, London in 1885. The National Rink Hockey Association of England (NRHA) is the roller hockey governing body in England.
The 2018 Rink Hockey European Championship, also named as EuroHockey 2018, was the 53rd edition of the Rink Hockey European Championship, a biennial tournament for men's national roller hockey teams of Europe organised by World Skate Europe - Rink Hockey, which took place between 14 and 22 July in A Coruña, Spain.
World Skate is the only governing body in the world for all sports performed on skating wheels. The organisation is the successor of the Fédération Internationale de Roller Sports (FIRS) founded on 21 April 1924.
The 2019 Men's Roller Hockey World Cup was the 44th edition of the Roller Hockey World Cup, organised by World Skate. The tournament was held in Spain, in the city of Barcelona, as part of the 2019 World Roller Games.
The Under 17 Female Clubs European Rink Hockey Tournament is an annual roller hockey competition for the under-17 club and national teams of Europe organised by World Skate Europe - Rink Hockey.
The 2021 Rink Hockey European Championship, was the 54th edition of the Rink Hockey European Championship, a biennial tournament for men's national roller hockey teams of Europe organised by World Skate Europe – Rink Hockey. It took place between 15 and 20 November in Paredes, Portugal.
Carlos Amaral
