Inline speed skating
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Inline speed skating is the sport of racing on inline skates. It is often called inline racing by participants. Although it primarily evolved from racing on "quad" roller skates, the sport is similar enough to ice speed skating that many competitors are now known to switch between inline and ice speed skating according to the season.
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The skate
An inline speed skate is a specialized version of the inline skate. The boot or shoe is close-fitting, without padding and made of leather and/or carbon composites. For best performance the boot must conform closely to the shape of the foot, so most inline speed skating boots are heat-moldable so that the user may to some extent re-shape them.
The frame (sometimes called the chassis or plate) which holds the wheels is made of aircraft-quality aluminum and usually mounts five polyurethane wheels of between 78 mm and 88 mm diameter. Although clap skate frames similar to those used in long track ice speed skating have been designed for inline racing, they have so far not proven so superior to the normal fixed frame that many inline racers switched to and continued to use them. Instead, beginning in about 2002, elite inline speed skaters began employing so-called "big-wheel" skates and in subsequent years their use has become more widespread. The frames of such skates hold up to five wheels that may be from 84 mm to 110 mm in diameter.
A somewhat different form of inline speed skate uses a monocoque design. The boot and frame are made as one piece of carbon fiber material and offer noticeable savings in weight. They are, however, not widely used because they cost about four to five times the price of a high-quality standard boot-frame combination.
Inline speed skates usually do not have any sort of braking mechanism attached, and skaters use the "T-stop", "Toe-stop" ,and other techniques to slow down.
Race venues and formats
Inline speed skating races are held in a variety of formats and on a variety of surfaces.
Indoor races are held at roller skating rinks on coated wood floors and are common primarily in the United States, which has a long tradition of roller skate racing at rinks. The track is about 100 m in circumference. Events, or meets, are typically structured so that members of numerous age groups race in three or four distances. At the shortest distances, there may be a number of heats. To some extent, indoor inline races are similar to short track speed skating.
Outdoor races may be held on regular pavement on city streets or park roads, or they may be held at specialized venues similar to velodromes, sometimes called patinodromes. A patinodrome is generally about 400 m in circumference and may be surfaced with asphalt, concrete or similar material. The curves may be banked. Such specialized skating tracks are relatively common in Europe but rare in the United States.
Race formats include:
Time trials: Held "against the clock", each skater races individually or in pairs over a distance of 100 m to 300 m, attempting to establish the best time. Time trials are occasionally held over longer distances, but they are very physically demanding and not popular.
Sprints: Skating in small groups of about a half dozen over a distance of 500 m to 1500 m, skaters advance in a series of heats to a final round.
Elimination races: In these moderate-distance races, also known as last man out, the hindmost skater is eliminated from the competition each time the skaters complete a lap or when they complete certain specified lap numbers. At one or two laps to before the finish, the group has usually been pared down to about five skaters.
Points races: In these moderate-distance races, the first, second and third skaters to cross the start/finish line at certain specified laps are awarded points. Laps late in the race are worth more points, with the final lap worth the most points of all. It is possible to win a points race without actually being the first to cross the finish line at the end.
Points-elimination races: A combination of elimination races and points races.
Relays: Typically include three to four skaters per team.
Criterium races: Instead of racing a specified distance or number laps, the skaters skate for a certain amount of time, then plus a (small) number of laps. The time is typically between 15 and 45 minutes, after which a bell is rung and the skaters informed the race is over when they skate one or two more laps around the course.
Distance races: Although events such as points-elimination races and criteriums may cover a distance of 10 to 25 km, a distance race usually refers to a race over a set distance of about 5 km or longer and without specialized points or elimination rules. The event may be truly point-to-point or may held on a repeating course with a circumference of at least 1 km. Distance races are often marketed to the general populace and not just to members of inline racing clubs.
In the early days of inline racing, sponsors of distance races were often also running event organizers, and the races they organized were commonly the same distances as those of running races, about 5-10 km. By the mid-1990s such events were proving to not be very popular and in the United States, where sales of inline skates were also beginning to slip, there was a decline in participation at races. However, at about that time in Europe, where inline skate sales were beginning to rise, race sponsors began to regularly organize longer events, particularly inline marathons. Such events proved to be enormously popular among fitness skaters, with some events such as the Berlin Inline Marathon and the Engadin Inline Marathon in St. Moritz, Switzerland, regularly attracting over 5000 skaters each year.
In about 2000 American event sponsors followed suit, and inline half-marathons and marathons were scheduled more and more frequently around the country. As in Europe the events proved a big draw with fitness skaters looking for events which would give their training a focus. In the United States the most popular inline marathons have been the NorthShore Inline Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota and the Long Beach marathon. Also popular is the 142 km Athens-to-Atlanta Road Skating Marathon, first held in the early 1980s as an event for quad roller skaters.
Dryland triathlons: Occasionally organized by triathlon sponsors, these events substitute inline skating for the swimming component of the race.
Downhill races: An event most popular in the Alpine countries of Europe, these races are timed events down a steep course. Racers usually skate alone and the event commonly uses the best time of two heats to establish the winner. Downhill inline racers usually wear skates much more like "regular" inline skates than inline speed skates, along with extensive body covering and protective gear, and strong helmets. They may reach speeds of up to 75 km/h.
Technique and tactics
The technique for inline speed skating is generally the same as the classic ice speed skating style. However, around 1992 the scene changed dramatically with the popularization of a technique called the double push by the United States skater Chad Hedrick. The technique literally allowed for two pushes in each stroke of the skate. However, the technique can be tiring and even pro-elite skaters will often save it until it is really needed, such as the latter stages of a distance race.
Tactics in outdoor inline racing are similar to those of marathon ice speed skating and of road bicycle racing. Skaters tend to form packs or pacelines in which skaters line up behind a lead skater, thereby saving energy by skating in his draft. Sportsmanship requires that skaters in the paceline share the duty as paceline leader. Those who never take a pull at the front will likely find other skaters tacitly working together to defeat them.
During the course of a race skaters may make attacks, speeding up the pace in an effort to weed out the weaker and slower competition. These attacks may include breakaways and fliers, in which skaters try to create new smaller and faster packs or else to escape entirely from the other skaters. Depending on the length of the race and the skills and the cooperative effort of the chasers, these breakaways may or may not prove successful. If a skater escapes a pack in order to join a successful breakaway group, it is known as bridging up.
When skaters who are member of teams participate in a race together, they often have pre-determined roles. One or two would be designated attackers whose role it is to tire out the competition. Another skater may be the designated winner for the team, and he may avoid chasing any breakaways until late in a race, possibly until the final sprint if the lead pack has never broken up. Professional teams usually also include skaters whose role is to slow down the chase group when it looks like a team member is on a potentially successful breakaway.
An excellent book on inline racing technique and training is Speed on Skates by Barry Publow (ISBN 0880117214). Although somewhat dated because it was published in 1999 prior to significant changes in skate designs, the book nevertheless remains a valuable resource and is the only inline racing text widely available in North America.
Olympic status
Inline speed skating is not an Olympic sport, and prospects that it will gain such status are dim. Attempts by the world governing body for roller sports, the International Roller Sports Federation (FIRS), to gain Olympic status for any of its disciplines were distinctly insufficient in the closing decades of the 20th century. Most notably, it failed to capitalize when rink hockey (a form of roller hockey) appeared as a demonstration sport at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.
Efforts by FIRS to obtain Olympic status become more coherent in about 2000, with inline speed skating promoted as the roller sport best suited for the Olympics. However, the federation faces competition from approximately 20 other sports also seeking entry into the Olympics, while at the same the president of the International Olympic Committee has expressed a desire to reduce the size of the summer Olympic Games.
Because inline racing does not have Olympic status, a number of inline speed skaters have switched to ice speed skating in order to have a chance at attending the Olympics. The first of these was KC Boutiette in 1993. This migration to ice proved successful in 2002 when three former inline speed skaters from the United States won five medals in long track speed skating at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. They were Derek Parra, Jennifer Rodriguez and Joey Cheek. In late 2002, American inline champion Chad Hedrick similarly switched to ice, and in February 2004, he won the World Allround Speed Skating Championships. He was the first American to win that event since Eric Flaim in 1988.
USA Roller Sports is the official American national governing body recognized by the US Olympic Committee.nl:skeeleren