| Current season or competition: 2011 FIRS World Inline Hockey Championships |
|
| Sport | Inline hockey |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1995 |
| No. of teams | 8 in the World Championships 12 in the National Team Cup |
| Most recent champion(s) | United States |
| Official website | WorldInlineHockey.org |
The FIRS Inline Hockey World Championships are an annual inline hockey tournament organized by the International Inline Roller Hockey Committee (CIRIH) under the International Roller Sports Federation (FIRS). First officially held at the 1995 World Championships, it is the sport's highest profile annual international tournament. The 1995 championships is recognized as the first inline roller hockey world championships. The 1995 event, twelve teams played a series of round-robin games to qualify for a single elimination playoff. Medals were awarded to the winners of the medal games. In 1997, fifteen nations took part and were split into two pools. In 2008, seventeen nations took part and were split into two groups. The top eight teams played for the World Championship. The other nine played for the National Team World Cup.
The modern format for the World Championship features 8 teams in the championship group, and the rest of the teams in the National Team World Cup. The teams in both divisions play a preliminary round, then the top six teams in the championship, and the top two teams in the world cup play in the playoff medal round and the winning team is crowned World Champion. The World Championships are open to all players, both professional and amateur. The FIRS requires that players are citizens of the country they represent and allow players to switch national teams provided that they play in their new nation for a certain period of time.
United States is the tournament's most dominant team, winning the tournament 13 out of 15 years. Canada, Czech Republic, and Switzerland have all won the tournament once.
The 17th World Championships will be held in Roccaraso, Italy.
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The first tournament was held in Chicago, United States in 1995. The United States won the tournament after defeating Canada in the final. The United States won the tournament a further three times before in 1999 they were beaten by Switzerland in the gold medal game. The following year the United States reclaimed the gold medal and again won it in 2001.[1]
In 2002 FIRS expanded the inline program to include a women's tournament. Both the men's and women's tournaments were held in Rochester, New York, United States where Canada's men's and women's teams went on to win their respective tournaments. Through the next four years the United States continued their dominance in the men's tournament while in the women's both Canada and the United States competed in the final all four times by both winning two gold medals each.[1]
In 2007 FIRS again expanded their inline program to include a juniors' tournament. The United States went on to win the first edition of the tournament after beating the Czech Republic in the final.[1]
As of 2011, the FIRS World Championships are split up into two different divisions. This is the alignment of the divisions. Teams are ranked based on their finish in the 2010 World Championships. Teams that are not participating are not ranked and are not included here.
Keys:
The World Championship division comprises the top eight inline hockey nations in the world. The 17th championship will be held between July 10 and July 16 in Roccaraso, Italy.
| Nation | Group (as of 2011) |
FIRS Ranking (as of 2011) |
Member of FIRS since |
Member of division since |
Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canada | Group B | 6 | 1995 | 15px | |
| Czech Republic | Group B | 3 | 1995 | 15px | |
| France | Group A | 4 | 1997 | 15px | |
| Germany | Group B | 7 | 1999 | 2010 | |
| Italy | Group A | 5 | 1995 | 15px | |
| Mexico | Group A | 8 | 1995 | 2010 | |
| Switzerland | Group B | 2 | 1997 | 15px | |
| United States | Group A | 1 | 1995 | 1995 |
| Year | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Host city (cities) | Host country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Canada | United States | Australia | Rochester | United States |
| 2003 | United States | Canada | Czech Republic | Pisek | Czech Republic |
| 2004 | Canada | United States | Czech Republic | London | Canada |
| 2005 | Canada | United States | France | Paris | France |
| 2006 | United States | Canada | France | Detroit | United States |
| 2007 | United States | Czech Republic | France | Bilbao | Spain |
| 2008 | Czech Republic | Canada | United States | Düsseldorf | Germany |
| 2009 | United States | Czech Republic | Canada | Varese | Italy |
| 2010 | Czech Republic | Canada | United States | Beroun | Czech Republic[3] |
| 2011 | United States | Canada | France | Roccaraso | Italy |
| Year | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Host city (cities) | Host country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | United States | Czech Republic | Germany | Düsseldorf | Germany |
| 2008 | Great Britain | United States | Canada | Philadelphia | United States |
| 2009 | Czech Republic | Canada | United States | Varese | Italy |
| 2010 | Czech Republic | United States | France | Düsseldorf | Germany[4] |
| 2011 | Czech Republic | United States | France | Roccaraso | Italy |
| Year | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Host city (cities) | Host country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Czech Republic | France | Italy | Bisley | Great Britain |
| 2011 | Czech Republic | France | Italy | Beroun | Czech republic |