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*(February, 02) Inline Skaters Qualify to Speedskate in the Winter Olympics. Eight years ago KC Boutiette "broke the ice" when he successfully moved from inline to ice and competed in the winter Olympics. Four years later Derek Parra and Jennifer Rodriguez joined him. Now they are joined by five more ex-inline skaters. The 2002 lineup for Long Track includes: KC Boutiette, Joey Cheek, Derek Parra, Jennifer Rodriguez, and Jondon Trevena. And the Short Track lineup includes inliners Apolo Ohno, Allison Baver, and Shani Davis. Davis breaks still another barrier to become the first African-American to compete in Olympic Speedskating. Good Luck skaters! |
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*(February 8, 02) Short track speedskater Amy Peterson carries the US Flag into Olympic Stadium. Long track speedskater Derek Parra is one of 8 athletes who carry the Ground Zero Flag (WTC) into Olympic Stadium. |
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*(February 9, 02) Derek Parra wins a silver medal in the 5000m event. He set a new world record, beating that of Romme. Parra's record was broken in turn later on. Parra becomes the first US inline racer to medal in a winter Olympics. He is also the first Mexican-American to medal in a winter Olympics. Congratulations! (Your rollerskating coach, George Cottone, and those of us who skated with you at Stardust in San Bernardino when you were only 15 knew this time would come.) |
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*(May, 01) "ROLLER SKATING IN ITS WAY TO THE 2008 OLYMPIC GAMES" On April 26th, President Isidro OLIVERAS and FIRS Media & Internet Manager Jaume ALEMANY paid a visit to Beijing and met with the Olympic Bid Committee Director Mr. Lou Dapeng. In Beijing there are more than 150,000 inline skaters. Mr. Dapeng assured FIRS that should Beijing be elected as a host city for the 2008 Olympic Games, they would strongly support the bid of FIRS. As for speedskating Dapeng said there would not be any problem adding an inner ring to the cycling velodrome. FIRS President Oliveras presented a plaque from FIRS to Dapeng , wishing Beijing luck in the next Session of the IOC on July 13th in Moscow, where the organizer of the 2008 Olympic Games will be decided among the towns of Toronto-Canada, Beijing-China, Paris-France and Osaka-Japan.Original story here The other three 2008 bid cities have also made plans for inline's inclusion but China's pledge looks strongest at this point. *(June, 01) Skating Shakeups:There are numerous reports that Chad Hedrick is leaving Verducci. There is not full agreement on where he is going yet. Also, Heads are rolling at USA Rollerskating. The first casualty seems to be Jay Ingram, speed director. It is reported Here: A Dark Day In Inline Speed Skating . No one I know understands just what is going on yet at USARS or where it will end. *(July, 01) Skating Shakeups Part 2:Gary Castro Resigns as Chairman of the Board of USA Roller Skating See the Official notice Here. Gene Cox of USARS was stricken by a stroke during the North Central Regionals. He will remain hospitalized from four to six months. PIRS Elevates to Golden Gate Park. (From the USARS website:) During the 2001 revamping of the PIRS structured competitions, Lou Marciani, executive director of USARS, had major goals in mind - move PIRS to a festival-like atmosphere, expose our in-line speed skaters to the general public, generate a renewed interest in the sport of speed skating and offer fitness skaters the opportunity to connect with skaters from around the country through the National Governing Body of roller sports. With the long-awaited addition of the newly created fitness discipline, the Golden Gate Oval becomes a premier location for both events. |
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*(December, 00) Inline Clap Skates Are Here Now.See pictures of the new models here.The elite inline speedskaters are already on clapskates and most of the competitive racers are likely to have moved to clapskates within a year. Verducci's V-Drive was the first to have an impact as Julie Glass chalked up a number of wins on them. The V-Drive (which Verducci calls a "drive system" and not a clapskate) is scheduled for public release next month. Recently the Mogema M41 clapskate has been stealing the limelight as Mogema beat Verducci to the market. New users report a few days of awkwardness soon replaced by a feeling of greater comfort than fixed inlines (because of the ergonomic design). This is later followed by an increased speed over fixed skates. The learning time varies but can be very short for some skaters.
I think that these problems could be avoided by moving the 2004 Olympics to a better organized site. (IOC was talking about this recently.) One possibility would be Rome, Italy in 2004. Italy has a good speedskating team and seems to want the Olympics more than Greece. (See also the entry for January 27, 1999 listed below on this page.) *(April, 00) Roller Skating Wins in USOC Poll:  *(March, 00) In response to skater complaints that the Verducci clap skate represents an unfair advantage, USARS has banned them from regional and national competition this year. Julie Glass was testing the "V-Drive" inline clap skate as she won the recent Great Skate 2000 event. |
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*(May 10, 99) Heather Gunnin was struck by a car today. She has since recovered but is now preparing for childbirth. *(March, 99) X-Games become the EX-Games--- ESPN shows that it can go downhill faster than the inline skaters by cancelling the inline event scheduled for this summer in San Francisco. ESPN claims the decision is based on the results of a Focus Group Study. To translate ESPN's corporate spin Study the musical Group Focus to find that their hit song was titled "Hocus Pocus". And that could be the theme song of this year's (E)X-Games. Skaters pin their hopes on NBC's new Gravity Games. For skater reaction see the article at www.skating.com . *(Jan. 27, 99) Inline Skating's Olympic debut in 2004 threatens to be engulfed in the widening IOC scandal. The mayor of Rome charges that Athens, Greece was chosen over Rome, Italy for the 2004 Olympics because of bribery. Greek officials deny the charges. Stay tuned. *(Jan. 26, 99) The Columbian Marathon scheduled for February 2, 1999 in Pereira Columbia has been cancelled by government order. Towns only a few miles from the inline skating race site were 90% destroyed by a major earthquake. We wish good luck to the Columbian skaters. *(Jan. 99)Inline Speedskating Enters The Olympics. Several reports are circulating on the internet that FIRS has petitioned the IOC for the inclusion of inline speedskating as a sport in the summer 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. The proposal being considered by the IOC calls for a small number of elite skaters to participate in a road race. *(Jan. 99) A number of inline speedskaters will participate in RollerJam which will be televised starting this month. Among the speedskaters will be Heather Gunnin and Micah Martin and his brother from the High Rollers in Las Vegas. |
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