Sophia Martinez

I switched my 4-kilometer commute from a crowded subway to inline skates three years ago, and I have not looked back. My average door-to-desk time dropped from 28 minutes to 19 minutes, I save about $90 a month on transit, and I roll into the office more alert than I ever did on a stalled … Read more

If you have ever watched a pack of skaters blur past in a tight formation at 35 mph and wondered how the whole thing actually works, you are in the right place. Understanding how inline speed skating races are structured opens up a sport that combines raw sprint power with endurance tactics, team strategy, and … Read more

If you have ever watched roller derby or inline speed skating and noticed that the track curves inward like a bowl, you were looking at a banked skating track. That angled surface is not just for show. It changes how fast skaters move, how they block, how penalties work, and even which direction they are … Read more

If you have ever watched a long track speed skating event and wondered why everyone crosses the line together, you are not alone. The mass start road skating race is the format that breaks the mold. Instead of two skaters racing the clock in separate lanes, you get 16 to 24 skaters charging around the … Read more

If you have spent any time around the inline speed skating community, you have probably heard someone refer to “the track record” or “the road record” as if these were completely different sports. In many ways, they are. Inline speed skating world records are categorized into a structured system that separates track events from road … Read more

Inline skating feels like a modern sport, but the history of inline skating stretches back nearly 300 years to a Dutch inventor who just wanted to keep skating after the canals thawed. From wooden spools nailed to boots in the 1700s to the polyurethane-wheeled Rollerblade craze that defined the 1990s, this is a story of … Read more

Rollerblading once ruled the streets, sidewalks, and boardwalks of America. In the mid-1990s, the click of inline skate wheels was as common as birdsong on a summer afternoon. Then, almost as quickly as it arrived, the rollerblading craze faded. Our team dug through the cultural, economic, and athletic forces behind that crash, and we were … Read more

Double push is an inline speed skating technique that transformed competitive skating by allowing skaters to generate propulsive force during both the traditional push phase and an additional underpush phase. Its major advantage over the previously practised classic technique is that it allows the skater to do useful work during the part of the stride … Read more

If you have been searching for what happened to the roller sports Olympic bid, the short answer is this: the IOC Executive Board rejected the bid in October 2009, choosing golf and rugby sevens instead. Despite more than a decade of advocacy from World Skate (formerly FIRS), roller sports has never been added to the … Read more

Inline speed skating vs ice long track speed skating isn’t a casual comparison — it’s a story about athletes who spend years training on wheels and then switch to ice to chase Olympic gold. I have followed both sports closely for years, and the crossover pipeline between them is one of the most underrated stories … Read more