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Skaters rock on wheels? Precisely
Monday, September 11, 2000
By ROSELYN TANTRAPHOL
Timing, teamwork important at championships
SPRINGFIELD Think it's difficult to get two lines of roller skaters to gracefully mesh and then break out into traveling pinwheels?
Think again.
The roller-skating teams that routinely perform such moves say the tougher job is getting one or two dozen people to mesh schedules.
"When you're trying to get that many people at the same time to practice, it makes it very difficult," said Mary Nendza, who coaches a 16-member precision roller-skating team from Brookpark, Ohio.
The 190 skaters with 11 teams who made it to the team precision event at the 2000 World Artistic Roller-Skating Championships last night somehow managed to synchronize both their calendars and their feet.
The 12-day world championship, which runs until Sept. 16, is being held at the Springfield Civic Center. Competitions include free skating, figures, pairs and dance.
Hailing from seven countries, the precision teams drew gasps and cheers from the audience as they moved into formations like the four-spoke and the eggbeater, or returned to a straight line of speeding feet something of a chorus line on skates.
During their four-minute routines, rated for technical skill and artistic expression by a panel of judges, the skaters rocked to Ricky Martin hits and marched to songs from the soundtrack "Antz."
Nendza's Brookpark Elite Team, one of three teams from the United States, practices about six hours a week. "It's difficult," she said, "because we have to have the entire rink to ourselves."
And after all that practicing, roller skaters have to contend with a public that just doesn't understand.
"It's frustrating. People really enjoy watching ice skating," said Michelle Baerg, 28, an elementary school teacher and a member of a 16-person team from Orange, Calif. "You try to explain to them we're just like ice skating."
Some people who do have some concept of roller skating as a sport still find it hard to believe that they use . . . well, roller skates.
"Everyone always asks if we skate on in-line skates instead of quads," said 20-year-old Tara A. Becker, a student at Tufts University who joined the precision team based in Milford. "They think it's a '50s thing," she said.
This is only the second year that precision teams can compete for medals during the world championships, said Pat Wheway, the volunteer coordinator for the event. Last year during the world championships in Australia, what began as an exhibition for precision teams turned into a medal competition, she said.
The logistical and emotional hurdles aside, roller skaters on precision teams do need to have their technical skills down cold.
Asked what the most difficult part of being on the floor is, Philip Gilpin, 18, of the Milford team, said, "It's pretty simple: being together."
When linked with a row or two of other skaters, there's that domino factor to keep in mind. "If one goes down, a whole line is going to (go down)," Nendza said.
Ultimately, it's that sense of connection that draws athletes to team-precision events, skaters said.
The 2000 World Artistic Roller Skating Championships event is organized by American Sports Connection in conjunction with the Federation of International Roller Skating Sports and USA Roller Skating.
© 2000 UNION-NEWS. Used with permission.
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