roller-skating, recreational and competitive sport in which the participants use special shoes fitted with small wheels to move about on 2️⃣ rinks or paved surfaces.
Roller-skating sports include speed skating, hockey, figure skating, and dancing competitions similar to the ice-skating sports, as 2️⃣ well as the vertical and street-style competitions common to so-called extreme sports.
Development of the roller skate The invention of roller 2️⃣ skates has been traditionally credited to a Belgian, Joseph Merlin, in the 1760s, although there are many reports of wheels 2️⃣ attached to ice skates and shoes in the early years of that century.
Early models were derived from the ice skate 2️⃣ and typically had an "in-line" arrangement of wheels (the wheels formed a single straight line along the bottom of the 2️⃣ skate).In 1819 M.
Petibled of Paris received the first patent for a roller skate.
Like previous models, Petibled's skate had an in-line 2️⃣ wheel arrangement, using three wooden or metal wheels.
The wheels were connected to a wooden block that in turn could be 2️⃣ strapped to a boot.
These early roller skates enjoyed limited popularity.
The ride was rough, and stopping and turning were nearly impossible.
Britannica 2️⃣ Quiz American Sports Nicknames Victorian couples roller-skating through a park, illustration by George du Maurier, 1876.
The first practical roller skate 2️⃣ was designed in 1863 by James Plimpton of Medford, Massachusetts, who broke from the in-line construction and used two parallel 2️⃣ pairs of wheels, one set near the heel of the boot and the other near the front.
He attached the wheel 2️⃣ pairs to the boot using springy carriages known as trucks.
This construction was first known as the "rocking" skate (and is 2️⃣ now known as a "quad") because it allowed the skater to easily shift on the skates in order to smoothly 2️⃣ navigate turns and perform other maneuvers.
Thereafter the first great recreational roller-skating craze swept the United States and western Europe, where 2️⃣ rinks were built in both small towns and large cities.
At the turn of the 20th century, rinks constructed in the 2️⃣ Chicago Coliseum and New York City's Madison Square Garden attracted thousands of customers on their opening nights.
The quad style of 2️⃣ skate became the most popular skate for the next 80 years.
Plimpton's quad skates were soon followed by other technological improvements.
In 2️⃣ the 1880s ball bearings were added to the wheel construction, allowing for a smoother ride.
Toe stops for braking were introduced 2️⃣ as early as the 1850s; however, the large rubber toe stop for quad skates was not widely used until the 2️⃣ 1950s.
Heel stops were introduced with some of the earliest roller skates but were perfected only with the re-emergence of in-line 2️⃣ skates in the 1980s.
In the 1960s the wooden or metal wheels traditionally used in skates gave way to lightweight polyurethane 2️⃣ plastic wheels that gripped the riding surface better.
In the 1980s roller-skating enjoyed renewed popularity with the creation of a new 2️⃣ generation of in-line roller skates by hockey-playing brothers Scott and Brennan Olson, the founders of Rollerblade, Inc.
They developed in-line skates 2️⃣ with four wheels that extended the full length of the boot, giving the skater greater maneuverability (compared with previous in-line 2️⃣ skates) and much more speed.
The company also introduced lightweight plastics and other materials to the boot construction, as well as 2️⃣ buckles that allowed for easy adjustments to the fit and comfort of the skate.
Roller sports New sports incorporating roller skates 2️⃣ emerged soon after the introduction of the quad skate in 1863.
The first recorded game of roller hockey took place in 2️⃣ London in 1878.
Speed roller-skating events began in the 1890s and were popular through the first quarter of the 20th century.
Major 2️⃣ speed roller-skating events for men, women, and relay teams involve racing counterclockwise around an oval track or on the open 2️⃣ road.
The rules and techniques for these competitions are much like those established for ice skating.
Dancing and figure skating on roller 2️⃣ skates were introduced in 1910 and 1923, respectively; systems for judging competitions and for proficiency tests are similar to those 2️⃣ used in ice skating.
International competition in artistic and speed roller-skating and in roller hockey is governed by the International Federation 2️⃣ of Roller Sports, founded in 1924.
The first world championships were held in 1937.
Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access 2️⃣ to exclusive content.
Subscribe Now Roller Derby was one of the first roller sports to succeed on the professional level.
The sport 2️⃣ originated in Chicago in 1935 as an endurance competition between male-female couples.
The teams would circle a banked rink for 57,000 2️⃣ laps, a total distance that was said to equal a trip across the United States.
A few years later Roller Derby 2️⃣ was restructured as a contact sport with two teams, each consisting of five men and five women.
The men would compete 2️⃣ against the men and the women versus the women, in alternating periods.
A designated skater for each side would try to 2️⃣ pass as many members of the opposite team as possible during the period, while teammates would work to block or 2️⃣ slow the opposing team.
Audiences responded to the speed, violence, and theatricality of the sport (feuds were often scripted), and the 2️⃣ spectacle was hugely popular during the 1940s and '50s.
Leagues thrived in Canada, Japan, and Puerto Rico.
Professional Roller Derby collapsed in 2️⃣ the 1970s, and attempts to revive it were unsuccessful until the early 21st century.
The resurgence occurred primarily in the United 2️⃣ States and comprised both professional and amateur teams.
The arrival of a new generation of in-line skates in the 1980s had 2️⃣ a major impact on roller sports.
The improved in-line skates were quickly adopted by speed skaters and also inspired a new 2️⃣ variety of roller hockey.
The original form of roller hockey, also known as hardball roller hockey, is played with quad skates, 2️⃣ a small hard ball, and curved sticks similar to those used in field hockey, and the sport's rules are derived 2️⃣ largely from polo.
In-line roller hockey uses a puck, sticks, and many of the rules of ice hockey.
In-line skaters also embraced 2️⃣ competitions commonly associated with skateboarding.
These sports, sometimes called aggressive roller-skating, include street style, which involves riding through urban environments and 2️⃣ performing tricks off stairs, rails, and other structures, and vertical style, which involves aerial acrobatics performed off ramps or in 2️⃣ a half-pipe (a U-shaped skating structure).
