The International Jump Rope Union (IJRU) made a big splash at the 2019 Sportaccord Convention on the beautiful Gold Coast, Australia.

Five IJRU executives and three athletes attended to showcase the wonderful sport of Jump Rope/ Rope Skipping and made further connection with other international federations, multi-sport games and major city representatives throughout the SportAccord Convention where over 100 sport Internationals federations were present.

An enormous thank-you to the Australian athletes, Luke Boon, Lilly Barker and Ben Cooper who displayed Jump Rope/ Rope Skipping at the convention. The extraordinary skills in their demonstrations utterly impressed other sport federations and representatives including Mr Raffaele Chiulli who is newly elected as GAISF President.

The local athletes from Cleveland Air Magic and Hot Shots of Queensland, Australia, took part in the United Through Sport/ Gold Coast Sport Festival. This was the very first opportunity for the sport to be showcased in such event where GAISF, AIMS, IOC representatives as well as the 8th Secretary General of the United Nations, His Excellency Ban Ki-moon attended. The Queensland athletes made great engagement with local students and general audience at the event and made the Jump Rope/ Rope Skipping communities all proud.

IJRU will continue advancing Jump Rope/ Rope Skipping for the athletes by making further engagement with GAISF and other IFs at the future SportAccord Conventions.

As we prepare for the 2020 World Championship, we have a number of exciting announcements to share.

IJRU 2020 World Championship Update

We are working towards hosting the first IJRU World Championship. There are many things that we need to consider as we develop a new rule set and tournament structure. In order to accommodate our diverse and growing membership, we have decided to allow countries to choose which rules they will use to qualify for the IJRU 2020 tournament. This means National Governing Bodies can use IJRU, FISAC, WJRF, or their own national rules at the qualifying tournament. Please talk with your local NGB to find out which rules they will use for your qualifying tournament.

The Latest Draft Rulebook

On March 31st the Technical Congress released a second draft of the IJRU judging manual and competition manual. Please review these documents and fill out the survey to offer your feedback. 

IJRU gets a .sport web address

We are excited to announce that the IJRU has been given a new web address: ijru.sport. As an observational GAISF member, we have access to this unique and prestigious domain name. The .sport initiative allows us to:

• Stand out in an increasingly crowded online sport community

• Gain recognition as the primary rope skipping/jump rope organization globally

• Increase our visibility through search results

You can review the GAISF .sport initiative for more information about this exciting opportunity. We are also in the process of updating our website with new features and functions to make it more user friendly for our members and broader sports community.

One of our core principals is to promote and spread the sport of jump rope/rope skipping around the world. Check out and support the upcoming events from our members and learn how to promote your next event through IJRU!

Promote your event

Are you an IJRU member country and hosting an upcoming competition, workshop, or promotional event? Let us know. We would be happy to promote your event to the entire jump rope/rope skipping community on our blog. Fill out our event survey!

Upcoming events

We are excited to help promote two exciting events taking place in Africa in the upcoming months!

African Jump Rope Training Workshop

The Nigerian Rope Skipping Federation is excited to welcome athletes from Botswana, South Sudan, Uganda, South Africa, and Kenya to a three day workshop in Lagos, Nigeria. The workshop is sponsored by World Jump Rope Federation and will take place from April 18, 2019 to April 20, 2019. Instructors and delegates from the United States and South Africa will help teach new skills and promote the sport! For more information about the event, read their media release.

Arnold Classic Africa

From May 17, 2019 to May 19, 2019 jump rope/rope skipping will be featured in the Arnold Classic Africa. This multi-sport event will take place in Johannesburg, South Africa and will help promote our sport and introduce it to new participants. This is the fourth time jump rope/rope skipping has been featured at this event. Best of luck to all those taking part in this exciting event and thank you to World Jump Rope Federation for helping with sponsorship.

Recent events

On March 21, 2019 Kazakhstan held their national jump rope tournament. We would like to congratulate all of the athletes, coaches, officials and organizers for an excellent event! Check out photos and videos from the tournament on the Kazakhstan Rope Skipping and Jump Rope Facebook page

We are excited to hear interest in IJRU judge and clinician training. Here we’d like to provide some guidance and details for those interested in attending training and for groups hosting training. Please share feedback as we’re looking to constantly improve. 

The rules are currently in development and hopefully you are seeing updates here as the Technical Congress publishes information and collects feedback. This process will continue through June. In July at the first IJRU Annual General Meeting (AGM), the rules will be put up to a final vote. At the same time, IJRU will hold the first judge clinician (judge trainer) and judge training. There cannot be IJRU-sanctioned judge training before this event as the rules and materials will not be ready.  

The Tech Congress is building a working group to build the judge training materials. We are looking for experienced judge trainers from around the world drawing from both incoming organizations (FISAC-IRSF and WJRF). Please submit nominations here. (Please feel free to nominate yourself.) 

We are working on a process for approving, staffing, promoting and tracking IJRU judge training. If you are already planning IJRU judge training at your event or with your group and your country is a member of IJRU, please work with your country membership. Otherwise please email info@ijru.org with the details of your event. To be certified, all IJRU judge training events must be sanctioned and approved by the IRJU. Prior approval is required in advance to use IJRU’s name in promoting any event (judge training, competition or otherwise). We do this to set standards on quality and to ensure that the event is consistent with IJRU’s core values.  

We are excited to launch the IJRU blog. This will be a space for us to communicate news and updates to the global community. Membership in the IJRU is reserved for National Governing Bodies (NGBs). As a result, some information will be sent directly to your country’s NGB. That being said, we recognize that many athletes, coaches, judges, volunteers, and administrators in our sport want to stay informed about the IJRU.

Communication strategy

Our communication strategy will provide regular public updates, to all individuals in our sport. Here, you will learn about upcoming IJRU sanctioned events, news stories, call for volunteers, and important IJRU deadlines and reminders.

Our public communication strategy will focus on 4 important channels of communication:

• Email

• Website updates

• Blog posts

• Social media posts

Give us your feedback

On our blog, we will provide you with an opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback. We are going through a large structural change in our sport and we have heard from many individuals that they feel left out of the process and don’t know how to offer their input. By creating this blog, we hope to encourage the development of a healthy dialogue and a space for our community to learn and share ideas.

Updated constitution

We listened to your feedback and have made some changes to our constitution. Please review an updated version of the constitution here.

IJRU becomes a member of TAFISA

Membership in The Association of International Sport for All (TAFISA) will help promote the sport of Jump Rope/Rope Skipping and provides us with access to a diverse network of international sporting organizations, exciting events and informative workshops.

TAFISA works to raise awareness around the benefits of Sports for All and physical activity.

Join our email list

The International Jump Rope Union (IJRU) made a significant step in the merging of FISAC-IRSF and WJRF by convening the first Interim Board of Directors (BOD) meeting and Technical Congress in Oslofjord, Norway on October 3-7, 2018. The week of meetings was highlighted with a great spirit of cordiality and camaraderie that aided in the discussions. 

Both the Board of Directors and Technical Congress made tremendous accomplishment while in Norway. Among them was the affirmation of the IJRU constitution and the initial events for the 2020 unified World Championship program

Event	Date	Milestone Events	Attended by/ Managed by
1	March 2018	IJRU incorporated, bylaws established, board establishment ongoing, organisation exists and is submitted for recognition by GAISF.	IJRU Transition Team, IJRU Board
2	15-20 April 2018	Joint attendance at IOC GAISF conference in Bangkok, Thailand.	IJRU Board
3	July/August 2018	IJRU communication events and initial briefings to member countries at FISAC-IRSF and WJRF AGM's. FAQ sessions held.	FISAC-IRSF/WJRF
4	May 2019 July 2019	IJRU board meeting (online) Inagual IJRU AGM at WJRF competition	FISAC-IRSF/WJRF
5	July 2020	IJRU hosts inagual 2020 jump rope/rope skipping world championships.	IJRU
6	July 2020 onwards	IJRU continues as single world unified body to administer the sport of jump rope/rope skipping.	IJRU

The International Jump Rope Union (IJRU) has become the 10th International Federation to gain GAISF Observer status.

The decision was taken by the Global Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF) Council, which met during SportAccord in Bangkok.

The IJRU was created by a merger of former rivals, the International Rope Skipping Federation (FISAC- IRSF) and World Jump Rope Federation (WJRF).

Both the constituent members of IJRU had made separate applications for Observer status but, in keeping with GAISF’s commitment to accepting a single International Federation for each sport, both worked with the help of GAISF advisors to align their interests, overcome rivalry issues and create the new Federation.

Observer status allows International federations to be part of the GAISF network, take part in activities including the annual IF Forum and to attend the General Assembly, although they have no vote.

Observer status is the first step on a clear pathway for new International Federations towards the top of the Olympic Family pyramid. Those who wish to proceed will be assisted by GAISF, leading them into full GAISF membership through the Alliance of Independent Recognised Members of Sport (AIMS), and the Association of IOC Recognised International Sports Federations (ARISF).

GAISF President Patrick Baumann said: “We are delighted to welcome IJRU as Observers and would like to congratulate all involved in the process of successfully aligning the two former Federations to create a single international governing body for this fast-growing and exciting sport.

“We wish everybody involved in the sport the very best as they begin their journey and can assure them of GAISF’s support and assistance to enable them to fulfil their potential within the GAISF Family.

“At a time when many new sports are emerging and expressing an interest in joining GAISF, the creation of IJRU provides a blueprint which might inspire other previously rival organisations to follow. We are committed to supporting IFs to achieve unity in the long-term interests of their sports.”

IJRU President Shaun Hamilton, of IJRU said: “We are delighted to become an Observer and to join the GAISF family.

“This closes one chapter and marks the beginning of an exciting new one in the development of Jump Rope as an international sport.

“The merger of the two Federations was done in the interests of our sport and the athletes, who can now look to the future with renewed confidence and excitement.”

The two governing bodies of the world of competitive jump rope/rope skipping have come together to create the International Jump Rope Union. Delegates from both FISAC-IRSF and the World Jump Rope Federation have teamed up to represent the sport at the SportAccord World Sport & Business Summit in Bangkok this week.

SportAccord is the premier annual sports conference focused on driving positive change internationally and dedicated to connecting organizing committees, cities, press and media, businesses and other organizations involved in the development of sports worldwide.

This week, and IJRU’s participation in this conference, marks the beginning of a new era for jump rope/rope skipping. Competitors and spectators alike can look forward to a big, bright future where the athletes, and the sport’s growth, light the way.

Dear Jump Rope/Rope Skipping Global Community,

We are pleased to announce the formation of a new unified International Federation representing our sport! Please read the links below for a more detailed, joint statement from Shaun Hamilton, President of World Jump Rope Federation and Takashi Ogawa, President of FISAC-IRSF.

Please check out our website, and follow us on all social media platforms!

Sincerely,

Takashi Ogawa 
President, FISAC-IRSF 

Shaun Hamilton
President, WJRF

IJRU Merger Information

You can still find information on the previous websites:

World Jump Rope Federation

FISAC-IRSF

IJRU Merger Announcement