“Progress is impossible without change.”
In obstacle racing, it seems that the more the sport grows the more change that happens. As the sport develops and the people working behind the scenes work to ensure that the progress is happening in the right direction there will be lots of updates and changes. One being IORF is no longer IORF but is now OCRF.
I have been following the developments of the IORF for the past year. In that time while I have had several interviews with Ian Adamson the head of the now OCRF. The first was a profile on Ian himself and the path that needs to happen to have obstacle racing in the Olympics and the second article recapped the recent congress held near Collingwood, Ontario a few weeks ago. I have continued to follow the story and the latest updates from the OCRF with Adamson.
I have continued to follow the story and the latest updates from the OCRF with Adamson. He recently addressed the new changes in the name of the organization in an email interview stating:
“The reason we changed the name of the international federation from IORF to OCRF is to remove confusion between the original IORF proposed by Joe De Sena and started by Spartan Race, and the non-profit, non-governmental international federation, OCRF. This name was arrived at in collaboration and consultation with OCRAs and colleagues in international sports.
In the past 12 months, we have made significant progress toward meeting the requirements as specified by the International Olympic Committee to become a recognized international sport. This includes creating appropriate governance, systems and structure for the international federation and bring close alignment with the other self-forming national federations/OCRAs. We will be moving our headquarters to Lausanne, Switzerland and operating under Swiss law, starting sometime in 2017.
In addition, the OCRF will rolling out a world cup series and have continental championships. Most likely regional championships as well, for example North American Championships. We are currently in discussion with various event producers and will put the events to bid for hosting and delivering the races. This is a common procedure and is the system used but the OCRA European Alliance for the OCRA European Championships (hosted by Strong Viking in this case.)
http://www.obstaclesports.org/events.html
We are currently working with 53 countries that have national federations in various stages of formation and expect this number to double by the end of next year.” – per Ian Adamson via email
This is great for us and the sport. 2017 is looking more and more exciting by the day. Cheers to the new year and let’s finish 2016 strong!