World OCR and the International Parkour Federation agree to partnership.

Details and discussion at the World Congress on August 29th

Under recommendation from Olympic strategists and experts in international sport governance, IPF and World OCR have signed a memorandum of understanding to discuss the formation of a single, collaborative governance framework to further the development and growth of obstacle sports worldwide.

Key priorities and steps to ensure the growth and harmonization of Obstacle Sports include:

• Self governance of each sub-sport
• International multisport events
• Collaborative marketing initiatives
• SafeSport
• Gender representation
• Diversity
• Anti-doping
• Health, wellness and safety for events and athletes

The current sub-sports of OCR, Ninja, Parkour, and Adventure Racing will remain self-governing. Each sub-sport will be run by independent technical committees with their own technical congresses. This structure ensures autonomy of each sub-sport and ability to best represent their athletes and events.

The initiative mirrors the organizational structures of Aquatics, Cycling and Athletics by providing representation and governance by and for each sub-sport. The collaboration advances our goals of providing sport for all and meeting the intent of the International Olympic Committee’s Agenda 2020 and the Olympic Movement.

Unification of the sub-sports under a single governance umbrella will serve to further evolve Obstacle Sports across the world and meet requirements specified by GAISF to be recognized as an Olympic sport. As a unified international federation, Obstacle Sports is represented by organizations in 140 countries.

IPF and World OCR are committed to establishing the highest level of ethics through transparency and better governance. The unified federation will establish a culture of sustainability and social responsibility in events, and in the Obstacle Sports community.

The goal of the unified federation is to contribute to the greater good of humanity by educating all through participation in sport, without discrimination or bias of any kind. The aim is to facilitate mutual understanding, collaboration, friendship and fairness between the sub-sports, their athletes and all parties of interest.

Details and discussion will be held on Zoom at the 2020 World Congress, starting 3:00 pm CET on Saturday, August 29th (International OCR Day).