From: kimon@iat.holonet.net (Kimon Papahadjopulos)
Subject: Re: Rolleriad on WWoS
Organization: HoloNet (BBS: 510-704-1058)
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1992 03:02:30 GMT

In article <u9i6NB12w164w@cellar.org> rogue@cellar.org (Rachel McGregor) writes:

>   ABC ran an event called the Rolleriad (or was it Rollerium?) Saturday
>   afternoon on Wide World of Sports.  Held at Universal Studios in Florida, it
>   featured Team Rollerblade in speed and slalom competitions against members
>   of the U.S. Olympic Gymnastics, Skiing, and Figure Skating teams.

>   I only got to see a small piece of the competition, but in the Women's
>   Slalom, the figure skaters took the top three times (in two-person heats),
>   beating the skiers and members of Team Rollerblade!

Yuck!  Leave it to ABC to screw up a honest and upright sport.  They
brought in a bunch of celebs to race real inliners, all by invatation only,
and the celebs got their butts kicked, even with events designed to make it
more even.  But hey, maybe they beefed up the ratings.  Besides, its all
just fun anyway, right?  Kind of an aside until we get back to the real
sports.

So, who do you think were the only people in sight at the end of the
3K "RollerMarathon"?   Flame, Ridley, and Lowden.  Oooooh, Frank, couldn't
have called that.  I actually expected some of those downhill skiers to
be hanging with them...  Or how about Debby Thomas in the 100M?  Not a
proud moment, considering some of the good women sprinters that could
have been there.

And what about that 3K RollerMarathon?  There are 10K, 50K, 90K and longer
races going on out there.  With the prize money they were giving out, they
could have attracted the best racers in the country.  They could have done
something really good for the sport, had they so chosen.  Guess they
figured this would play better.

They ended up only showing the final few seconds of the RollerMarathon anyway
so what does it matter?  Perhaps they didn't feel a real race was justified.
On a sports show.  Too competitive I guess.  Who wants to watch people skate
for half an hour anyway?  Or five minutes, for that matter.

But hey, at least the celebs didn't to look too bad (yea, right...like everyone
did in that silly slalom on the flats event).  Were the celebs even racing in
the 3K?  They certainly weren't in the camera.  How much ground can you lose
in a 3K anyway?  It's a 5 minute race.  They could have at least shown us the
whole thing...

The exposure for the sport was nice-- sort of.  But it's not as if they have to
import celebrities to make it exciting, or come up with dorky new events
so that it will "look good" for television.  And what they ended up doing was
make it seem as if there isn't any real competition out there-- It's just
a casual thing that us Hollywood guys put together for your enjoyment!

All they had to do was take their film crew down to say, that IISA sponsored
event in San Diego last month, or any number of great races that are going on
across the country.  There was some great action in the San Diego race-- it
sure would have been a lot better than the watered down porrige they ended up
broadcasting.

Kimon Papahadjopoulos
kimon@holonet.net
Newsgroups: rec.skate