Korea Roller Sports Federation adds roller freestyle as its 6th official discipline

The Korea Roller Sports Federation officially announced Monday that it has designated roller freestyle as its sixth governing discipline.

The federation held the inaugural ceremony of its Roller Freestyle Committee at 4 p.m. Saturday at Olympic Hall in Songpa-gu, Seoul, formally adopting roller freestyle as its sixth official discipline. With the addition, the federation now oversees six disciplines: speed, artistic, inline hockey, inline freestyle, skateboard and roller freestyle.

Roller freestyle gained popularity alongside inline skating during the inline boom of the late 1990s and was widely known as "aggressive inline" for its high-intensity performances. World Skate later redefined the names of its individual disciplines and officially designated the sport as Roller Freestyle. World Skate currently governs 13 disciplines in total, including roller freestyle among 12 roller sports disciplines and e-sports.

About 50 competitive athletes are active in South Korea, and the number of recreational participants enjoying roller freestyle continues to grow.

At the 2026 Roller Freestyle Park World Cup held June 19 in Rome, Italy, Yoon Jong-hyeon won first place in the men's division and Kim Yeong-ung finished seventh. In the women's division, Jang Seo-a took second place.

"Now that we are governing roller freestyle, we plan to hold a demonstration-style event in the second half of this year to raise awareness of the sport," federation President Kim Gyeong-seok said. "For now, we need a strategic approach of sharing facilities with skateboard in a win-win arrangement. We want to introduce the true appeal of extreme sports to the public through roller freestyle."

Meanwhile, the federation held a series of roundtable discussions Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. with inline hockey coaches and committee members as well as artistic skating parents and committee members.

Kim organized the meetings as the federation wraps up the first half of this year and enters the second half, seeking feedback from those on the ground about the strengths and shortcomings of various policies in place since last year and ways to improve them.

"I will do my best to ensure that athletes and parents who are giving their all despite the hardships of competing in less popular sports can continue to enjoy what they do," Kim said. "Even if it takes time, I will work to grow participation in these disciplines and show progress."