Good morning,

Amazing news from last weekend, I had a go at rollerblading for the first time since I was 14 and it was so much fun. Rollerblades make you so tall and so fast! Also, nowadays, there are techniques for stopping that aren't just "crash into a hedge". Here is a Fem Fri about the women of rollerblading, there are a couple of styles represented here.

Obviously speed skating is the one where you go really really fast, it's pretty close to running but with wheels. What I had not realised is that in speed skating races people aren't all on the same track, it's time trials. I suppose that's to put clear blue water between racing and roller derby, as the crashes could get fairly gnarly:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jY1eypTyDEs

The still frame in this clip is from the Team USA contestant, Erin Jackson, who realised that she wasn't going to compete in the Olympics with rollerblading so she got into ice skating so that she could. It seems like she expected it to be easier, but also, she did do it:

“We have muscle memory from inline, but it’s not always the right muscle memory; the technique is fundamentally different,” Jackson explained. “We always joke about which muscles are hurting when you’re on the ice. When you’re hurting in your quads, you’re skating like an inliner. When you’re hurting in your hips, you’re skating like an ice skater.”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michellebruton/2021/03/05/erin-jackson-only-started-skating-on-ice-at-25-now-shes-training-for-her-second-olympics/

Away from pure speed, this is slide, the point of which appears to be that you ignore the fact that your rollerblades have wheels, but still use them to move:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSAGHW5DG1Q

Okay and it seems like the rollerblading->Winter Olympics pipeline is pretty well established because Nichakan Chinupun, who you see representing Thailand in the above video, also represented Thailand at skiing:

“The first time I saw snow it was very beautiful and I couldn’t believe how soft it was when I touched it. But I was scared to walk on it”

https://www.chiangraitimes.com/sports/nichakan-chinupun-becoming-thailands-winter-youth-olympian/

Maybe my couple of runs up and down the park mean that I should try skiiing again? One to consider. I'm open to feedback.

Love,

Alex.