When Courtney Donovan of the US arrived for her Pan American Games roller figure skating short program and saw people in the stands an hour before the competition she was sure they were lost.
It was an understandable reaction for an athlete who has spent her entire competitive career in virtual obscurity, performing in dark suburban roller arenas in front of a few dozen spectators rather than the standing room only crowd that filled the venue on Sunday to a cheer her sixth-place finish.
“When I saw people sitting down an hour before we started skating I knew it was going to be something big,” Donovan said. “I was shocked people were sitting down before I skated. That was probably the biggest crowd I have ever skated in front of before in my life,” she said.
Photo: AFP
“A regular competition for me would basically be in a regular roller rink and the crowd might be maybe 20 to 25 people at most. We never skate in a big venue like this. The Pan American Games, this is like our Olympics,” she added.
The Pan American Games is as big as it gets for the roller figure skaters, who get to march in opening and closing ceremonies alongside 7,000 other athletes, live in the village and soak up a facsimile of the Olympic experience that for the moment remains a distant dream.
“I felt amazing; I have never had everyone out there cheering for me, so there was just a lot of energy out there today,” Canada’s Kailah Macri said. “This was just such an awesome experience. I have been skating for 15 years and I have never had something like this here. People are interested in it. It has gotten a lot of attention.”
Artistically and technically there is little difference between ice and roller figure skating.
The competition includes a short and long program, filled with many of the same elements, spins and jumps performed to the same dramatic soundtracks.
While Canada and the US can claim a rich figure skating tradition that has produced some of the sport’s biggest names, such as Peggy Fleming and Michelle Kwan, their eight-wheeled counterparts roll on in anonymity.
Macri has represented Canada at the World Championships seven times, but her efforts have gone largely unnoticed.
The sport enjoys a higher profile and acceptance in South America, which has dominated the Pan American medal podium.
Argentina’s Giselle Soler won gold on Sunday, following her sister Elizabeth from four years ago in Guadalajara, Mexico, while Brazil’s Marcel Sturmer captured his fourth consecutive Pan American title.
“I feel great. I had a fall in the program, but that is okay because we are human,” said Soler, whose elegant and technical routine was a class above, despite a spill.
Despite positive reviews and unprecedented exposure, roller figure skating’s moment in the spotlight is likely to be brief.
“We don’t have an Olympics, so we are fortunate that the International Olympic Committee allows us to come in and kind of show off our sport,” Donovan said. “In North America, it is really hard to build up our skating clubs. It is hard to keep kids in the sport [when] they see gymnastics, ice skating and they kind of join those and … stop roller skating.”
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