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Roller Skating
Roller skating is an official sport for Special
Olympics International. There are two competitive venues
- artistic roller
skating and roller speed skating. Roller hockey is currently offered as a demonstration
sport.
Athlete Eligibility and
Classification
Special Olympics roller skating events are
open to individuals with cognitive disabilities.
Separate events are conducted for men and women. All athletes
must satisfy the Special Olympics International
eligibility requirements, described on the SOI web site (http://www.specialolympics.org).
Click on "games and competitions," then choose "general rules" from the
drop-down menu.
Events
Special Olympics offers four artistic roller skating events: (a) ladies' and men's
singles; (b) pairs; (c) dance; and (d) school figures. Participants in roller speed skating compete in the following distance
races: 30m 100m, 300m, 500m, 1000m, 2 x 100m, 2 x 200m, and 4 x 100m. The relay distances
are part of the Unified Sports Program.
Playing Area
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Artistic roller skating. The skaters compete on a surface that is similar to an
ice arena. The size of the ice surface is dependent upon what the facility has to offer. |
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Roller speed skating. The skaters race around an oval track. The distance of
the track can be 200m or 400m. |
Rules
The SOI rules for both artistic roller skating and roller speed skating competitions are
based on the rules established by the
Federation International de Roller Skating (FIRS) (http://www.rollersports.org)
and USA Roller Skating (USARS) (http://www.usarollersports.org).
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Artistic roller skating.
Singles, pairs, and dance events
are skated to music and judged for their technical and artistic merit.
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The ladies' and men's
singles competitors are required to complete various jumps, spins, and
artistic movements. The singles events are competed at four different
levels, with each level being more difficult than the last. The pairs
events are part of the Unified Sports program where a skater with mental
retardation skates with a partner who does not have mental retardation. |
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In the pairs event, skaters can do jumps, spins, and lifts.
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The dance event is divided into solo dances and pairs dances. Those in the solo dance
event skate a set pattern to music. The event is judged for technical and artistic merit.
The pairs dance event is also part of the Unified Sport Program. In this
event the pair
skates a set pattern on the ice to music.
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Finally, the school figures are not skated to music. Figures
involve tracing figure
eights on the ice. The figure eights are skating backwards, forwards, and at a more
difficult level they are skated with turns. This event is judged for technical merit.
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Roller speed skating.
Skaters race around an oval track. |
Equipment
| Artistic roller skating. All participants in artistic roller skating use quad
roller skates. They are made of leather boots that cover the ankles and have a metal base
plate. Four wheels and a rubber stopper are attached to the metal plates. The leather is
black for men’s events and white for ladies’ events. Women wear skating dresses,
usually made of spandex and men must wear spandex pants and a shirt.
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| Roller speed skating. The speed skaters can use either in-line or quad skates.
The quad skaters are the same as used by the artistic skaters. The in-line skates are
similar to what is commonly known as "roller-blades". They only have three
wheels that are aligned down the middle of the boot. Ideally, participants should wear
in-line skates as they allow the competitors to gain greater speed. |
Links
Page prepared by Kelly Bonnar and revised by Gail
Dummer |
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