Debbie Sykes, age 15, of Cache Creek, B.C., Canada, for her question:
WHEN DID ROLLER SKATING ORIGINATE?
One of the fast growing sports in North America is the speed skating competition called roller derby. Teams are made up of five men and five wome , with the men skating first for a 12 minute period and then followed by the women for an equal time. A player scores points by lapping an opposing player. It's a rough sport that is popular on television and in many cities across he continent.
Roller skating has been just about everybody's favorite recreational activity at some time or another. Almost every child in Canada and the United States knows how to skate and does so on the sidewalks in front of his house or on paths at his local playground.
Skating is popular, too, in open air or indoor rinks. There are about 5,000 roller rinks across the continent, where more than 20 million people enjoy skating each year.
No one seems to be sure just how roller skating started. We know people were ice skating on bone skates as early as 1175, with iron bladed skates coming along in the late 1200s or early 1300s. The first ice skating club in the United States was established in Philadelphia in 1849, with the first Canadian club starting in 1862 in Montreal.
The first roller skater was probably someone who put wheels on his ice skates. in 1760 in London a man named Joseph Merlin demonstrated a pair of roller skates that he had invented.
By the mid 1800s, roller skating had become very popular in England. Many indoor rinks were built in large and small towns.
In 1863 an American by the name of James Plimpton invented an improved skate which gave roller skating a new burst of popularity. Then there were about 70 years with alternate periods of popularity and disfavor. Since the 1930s there has been a steady gaining of popularity.
For outdoor roller skating, most people use skates with steel wheels. Many of the skates, especially those used by children, clamp on the shoes and are also held to the feet by straps that go around the ankles. For indoor skating, most skaters wear special boots to which are permanently attached either wood, fiber or plastic wheels mounted on rubber cushions. The cushions make the wheels flexible so the skaters can turn by leaning from one side to the other.
There is competitive roller skating both in the artistic area and in speed. In artistic skating, a competitor must perform 64 different maneuvers in school¬figure skating. He follows a pattern on a series of circles painted on the floor, with many of the figures being smiliar to those performed in ice skating. In artistic skating there is also dancing and a freestyle number.
In speed skating competition, distances range up to five miles for men and one mile for women. Children race shorter distances.