Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 18, 1995 TAG: 9506210016
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Keith Turner may be Roanoke's foremost amateur athlete - albeit a somewhat anonymous one - but he has no chance of competing at the Atlanta Games next summer.
Roller skating isn't an Olympic sport - yet.
``One day it will be,'' Turner said. ``It's not a big disappointment, because it hasn't been in the Olympics yet, even though it would be great to be part of that next year in your own country. It will get there when more people learn how exciting it is to watch.''
In Argentina, they know. At a new 8,000-seat arena built for the Pan American Games in March in Mar del Plata, about 10,000 spectators drowned out the noise from the wheeling skaters, including Turner.
``Maybe someday it will be like that here,'' Turner said. ``It will take awhile, though. Once people start seeing it on TV, it will happen.''
In-line skating has been the fastest-growing sport in the United States the past four years, and about 80 percent of the more than 12 million in-line skaters are younger than 24, according to American Sports Data Inc. Turner, 19, is not one of the recent converts, however.
The Blacksburg native has been skating for more than a decade. He has been a competitor in national events for about four years, and has become so proficient he is a member of Team Hyper, representing a company that manufactures in-line wheels. The corporate sponsorship pays Turner a monthly stipend and travel expenses.
Turner, a rising sophomore at Virginia Western Community College, just returned from the U.S. team trials in Colorado Springs. When he went to Colorado, Turner thought his next competition would be in ESPN's Extreme Games this month.
Instead, he rolled to something better. He was named to a four-man U.S. team that will compete starting next weekend in the first Pacific Ocean Games - a smaller version of the Pan Am Games - in Cali, Colombia. He leaves Tuesday.
More impressively, Turner qualified as one of four men on the U.S. team for the World Team championships in Perth, Australia, in November.
Turner won the U.S. Amateur Confederation of Roller Skating outdoor national titles in the 300- and 500-meter sprints. He owns the USAC/RS national outdoor record in the 300 meters on a banked track (27.54 seconds). Although his reputation is as a sprinter, he also placed fifth in the road competition and was second overall in the combined competitions.
The roller skating confederation, sanctioned by the U.S. Olympic Committee, annually names the nation's top 40 skaters for USOC purposes. Turner is on that list, but he legitimately can be considered in the top 10, and the top five wouldn't be a stretch, a USAC/RS official said. When he started working with coach Scott Moyers years ago, Turner had no idea it could lead to Colombia and Australia.
``I started skating because it was fun, and it was something I thought I could do for more than a few years,'' said Turner, who moved to Roanoke after high school and lives with Moyers in a townhouse in northeast Roanoke City. ``When I got into it, I didn't realize it was anything that would pay for itself.
``I still do it because it's fun, but the competition at this level is hard. At the outdoor nationals, there were 81 men trying for four spots. You're out there by yourself. You end up making a team, but you're doing it as an individual. And the sport has gotten so much bigger with in-line skates. When people raced with quads [four wheels, the conventional roller skates of the past], it wasn't that way. It's really taken off.''
The thrill for the 5-foot-10 skater isn't the hundreds of trophies he has won. It's the sport. It's his 147 pounds cutting through the air downhill at 55 mph. It's turning a bank at 30 mph. It's talking about his sport, something Turner does well, too. It's also the roar of the crowd, something that's a rarity in Turner's home country.
``The problem is what people see and think is roller skating on TV,'' Turner said. ``What's been on here? Roller derby. People getting hit, falling down. That's not roller skating. ESPN2 is getting more into skating. If speedskating on ice is interesting, then roller skating will be, too. They have blades. We have wheels. It's a fast sport.
``At the Pan Am Games, it was wild. You go to a meet in this country and there might be 500 or 600 people there. In Argentina, people were hanging from the rafters, jammed in there, people standing up, screaming. That was awesome.''
Turner's last word also might describe the skates he wears, at about $1,300 a pair. If you see someone flying around the Roanoke Civic Center parking lot in the afternoon, it isn't one of the Roanoke Express players. It's Turner, during part of his 18 hours of workouts each week. He also practices indoors at the Olympic Roller Skating Center in Vinton.
Although Turner figures he has another five years before he reaches what should be his peak as a roller skater, he doesn't have the Olympics as a goal. The Sydney Games in 2000 have not told officials if the sport is on the schedule, and Turner isn't counting on it, although demonstration-sport status is a possibility.
``Education is most important to me,'' Turner said. ``Skating is second. I figure I'll only be skating until I'm 27 or 28. When I really got into this, I just expected to have fun. I still do, except now I expect to do well, too.''
by CNB