National Museum of Roller Skating

As a kid I used to roller skate with my friends all the time so visiting the National Museum of Roller Skating was an intriguing experience. I learned that skating was more than just a hobby; it was an actual sport where people competed. It was so much fun to see all the different types of roller skating competitions. You could compete in figure skating, speed skating, and off-road skating.

I think my favorite part of the exhibit was the figure skating exhibit. In fact, I never knew that there was any other types of figure skating than ice skating. It was really cool to see the different types of costumes and the skaters. Even Tara Lipinski was a roller skater before she was an ice skater. She was my favorite ice skater in the Olympics when I was younger.

Seeing how the roller skate was invented was really cool. To see the evolution of the wheel and the how it was made was probably my second favorite part of the exhibit. Roller skates were invented by Joseph Merlin in 1760. He wore them to a party where he crashed into an expensive mirror. After that he did not have much interest in roller skates but other inventors produce roller skate models. And by 1990 in-line skating and in-line hockey were the two most popular sports in America.

The roller skating museum was such a fun place to visit and see how big roller skating used to be. I don’t think it is as popular as it once was but my friends and I had a fun trip down memory lane seeing all those old advertisements, toys and even some skates that looked like the ones we had when we were kids. It was definitely an enjoyably visit that I will remember.