Fabiola da Silva – Newspaper Article
Fabiola bucks trend
Few females giving fringe sports a shot
The Associated Press
Published: Monday, October 30, 2006
Fabiola Da Silva has been around so long that the inline skating pioneer is now more of an anachronism, a back-flipping reminder of the days when women joined men in attempting stunts off a four-metre vertical ramp.
Women are disappearing from alternative sports events such as the X Games and the LG Action Sports World Championships.
Of the 175 athletes who competed this weekend in BMX, skateboarding and inline skating events at the LG event, only eight were women, said Rick Bratman, president of ASA Events, which organizes the action sports tour. There was one event for women, the inline street competition.
This year at the better-known X Games, a mid-season all-star event, there were two events for women. When the X Games started in 1995, there were six.
Although inline skating has high participation rates, it never caught on with die-hard fans when the alternative sports boom hit in the mid-1990s, Bratman said. Part of the reason is that it never developed the rich culture and language that define sports such as skateboarding and surfing.
“It didn’t have any culture,” he said. “It didn’t have its own vibe, its own trick names. It’s not as technical as skateboarding, which is one of the big knocks on it.”
It also doesn’t have much of an infrastructure, lacking the bureaucracy that funnels millions of children into soccer or baseball.
Unlike tennis or volleyball, the sports featured on the action tour don’t fall under the auspices of a national governing body such as the U.S. Olympic Committee, said Donna Lopiano, the CEO of the Women’s Sports Foundation.
Action or extreme sports are run by event promoters who are outside the mainstream of American sports organizations.
At 27, Da Silva’s main competitors from a decade ago have either retired or dropped out. “As the years came down, less girls were competing and it became only like two women,” she said.
The sport’s future is tied to the fortunes of athletes such as Da Silva, someone with potential for the crossover success enjoyed by skateboarder Tony Hawk.
“She’s the real deal,” Bratman said. “Fabiola is in my mind the best female athlete in the world.” source
Tags: fabiola da silva, girls
November 1st, 2006 at 10:41 am
“It’s not as technical as skateboarding, which is one of the big knocks on it.”
Wow, this guy really knows what he’s talking about.
Maybe we should send him a award, like a 3 month old dead fish or something.
November 1st, 2006 at 10:50 am
oh and dont know if this is the same yet.
But if you feel like giving brat a tour on the technicallity of inline,
Rick Bratman at +1-310-823-1865 x303 (couldve changed).
Anyways, nothing to do with our sports technicallity.
People watch Tony Hawk because he’s famous.
People watch Takeshi because everything he does is huge.
November 1st, 2006 at 11:13 am
Fabiola rocks. Too bad about the moron blathering about inline like he has a clue.
Trix, you sure you should be handing out numbers like that? ;)
November 1st, 2006 at 11:51 am
ofcourse :) hehehe.
I just hate subjective commentry about our sport from people that affect our sport.
and anyways :) that number was given to me by google :)
ey, weekend, if all my muscles arnt screwed… thrashers :)
November 1st, 2006 at 5:16 pm
You guys might hate it but it s reality….whe should open you eyes and ask why rollerblading is such a small industry…… complaining s easy…but brainstorming and beiing active in order to develop something is way harder and thats what rollerblading needs….
November 1st, 2006 at 6:55 pm
Cesium has a point, there are reasons why our sport wasn’t as mainstream in the mid 90′s as the other action sports…but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Inline at the moment is very grass-roots, and the people that are involved in our sport are in it because they have a passion for it, not for huge prize money, endorsements, or notoriety. Events like AIL (Amateur Inline League) keep the sport alive, not just because of the competition aspect but also by providing a place for rollers to congregate & grow.
Events like the Hoedown, Winter Clash, IMYTA, Bitter Cold Showdown, and The Barn Burner provide an atmosphere condusive to the growth of our culture. I think this is helping to build a stronger foundation for inline and from here we can continue to grow and never worry about or sport disappearing.
As far as women in rollerblading go…the 3 girls who just turned pro at the ASA World Finals are very talented and are proof that the girls, as well as rollerblading in general, aren’t going to disappear anytime soon!
November 1st, 2006 at 6:55 pm
oh & props to Fabiola!
November 1st, 2006 at 8:31 pm
What the fuck is this guy on?
This guy who is apparently the president of the ASA (1st I’ve heard of him in 12 years of skating)
“Although inline skating has high participation rates, it never caught on with die-hard fans when the alternative sports boom hit in the mid-1990s”
Hello? 1997, about at least 80% of kids in towns & cities all over the world rollerbladed. Remember when rollerblading as a whole was classed as the world’s fastest growing sport with millions of people were into it.
Saying that skating never had a culture, so in the past 12 years of skating I have been following the lifestyles & tricks of countless numbers of reknown skaters, in media outlets such as magazines,videos & now websites which stem back to the birth of ‘aggressive skating’ in 1993. So in a period more than half my life, I have religiously followed and experienced a lifestyle then hear how someone who is an apparent authority figure for the ASA ( which is Joe Public’s most common view of the rollerblading) telling the world that rollerblading “doesn’t have a culture” and “its not a technical as skateboarding”.
Scott McDonald
November 2nd, 2006 at 10:38 am
Cesium: Trust us, we’re amused that such a strange view exists, not complaining ;)
Both Trxtr and I are from South Africa, inline here has seriously pushed extreme sports throughout the whole country. We started out with one big competition a year, then two, which skaters from all over the country would converge on. Those two events started running competitions at the same time for BMXers and skateboarders too, skateboarding pulled the fashionable kids to come watch, but inline drew the largest crowds and the most contestants.
Currently we’re in a bit of a funk, inline has gone from the catalyst that created these events (and ran them) to a bit of a sideline role thanks to the strange perspective of inline that’s coming from the US. It’s really not cool that RedBull SA no longer puts it’s mobile vert ramp up at competitions anymore, or that sponsors are starting to ignore the levels of participation and crowd support for inline and sponsoring the “cooler” sports more.
So we’re back to holding our own events, with twice the number of competitors we had a couple years ago, thanks to taking inline into townships and running skate-swap programs, etc. We know we’re creating the new wave of events as the current ones die out, we know it’s a natural cycle, it’s just being made harder by the altering of the “mainstream” perception that’s imported from overseas.
Locally we’re used to being isolated, it was always just us on our own down here on the tip of Africa. We’re still growing like crazy (and the new kids are sick, sick skaters) and us old fogeys aren’t going anywhere. Who knows, maybe we’re proof that the whole grassroots “rollin for the love” thing really does work ;)
November 3rd, 2006 at 11:39 pm
in effetti è ‘na topetta de niente
November 4th, 2006 at 1:03 am
Anyone that ever says that rollerblading isnt as technical as skateboarding has to be a retard. Fliping a board around like a baton isnt technical, but seeing somone 360,and 540 into a grind on a handrailand and still be able to switch it up into a different grind , doing like 2 storie tall gaps, and jumping from one rail to another, thats tecnical!!!