When Chelsee began competing on her Pics one year ago Feb we felt the resistance
of the "quad" roller world at her first competition. Many negative comments
were heard, like "she sure likes to use her toe stop", (considered cheated when
using the toe stop to jump or spin on quad skates), "why doesn't she just stay
on her ice skates," and " that's not REAL roller skating." One judge that was
judging her age event, (there were six girls in the event, all quad skaters but
Chelsee), even yelled out when the warmup started, "Somebody get that kid a pair
of quad skates!" She was 8 years old at the time and was facing the ice world
(coaches and skaters) ridiculing her for roller skating and the roller world
trying to push her out and tell her she didn't belong. Here was a kid that
began on quad skates, discovered ice skating in the meantime, and had to make a
choice between the two because the technique was too different. She chose ice
but missed rollerskating terribly. I heard abou
t the Pic skate and got her a pair for her birthday so she could roller skate
again. She loved them from the beginning. The roller rink where she began
skating had a new coach and he asked her to come back and compete on her
inlines. I've been told that Chelsee is very stubborn and boy am I glad she is.
She kept a positive attitude throughout the season and never said anything rude
or negative to anyone that tried to discourage her. Her perserverence paid off.
By the end of the roller season she had quite a following. People would come in
just to watch her event, everyone was talking about "the inline kid." At
nationals last year I believe she was the first skater ever to compete in her
age division, (juvenile), on inline skates-against all quad skaters. There were
20 skaters and the top 7 advanced to finals. Chelsee landed four doubles and
skated a clean program. She placed 8th-she missed finals by one skater. Three
of the skaters that made it to finals didn't even have
a single axel in their program, let alone a double jump. Her ordinals were 4
6 8 8 9. Two judges wanted her in finals- three did not. Not too bad for the
first inline skater to compete in a quad dominant sport. Her coach asked the
judge who placed her 9th how he could justify her placement- his reply was "I'm
not ready to put an inline skater in a quad final event." She came back in the
elementary inline event and placed second, but her program was not as good as
the one she skated in the juvenile age event. She was discouraged but kept
skating. Slowly but surely people in our area are beginning to be more positive
towards inline skating. At the Broadmoor skating club, (Chelsee's ice club),
everyone knows she is also a roller skater and it's not such a bad thing
anymore. In fact there are quite a few questions being asked about her inline
skating because her ice skating has become so strong. In the roller community
they are appreciating the grace and quiet smoothness the i
nline brings to the roller sport- they have the beauty of ice skating on a
hardwood floor. If one little girl who loves to skate, regardless of what kind
of skate it is, can change this many people's opinion in just one year than
maybe there is hope for this sport. Chelsee has told me that she wants to make
a difference in the sport of roller skating. I told her I think she's on the
right track-just keep skating. I hope she gets the chance to see "her sport"
make it to the Olympics while she can still skate it.
Michelle