DIANE MAKAR MURPHY Champion skater works toward goal with precision

On Thursday, Kristin Namish, a pretty, petite blond senior at Youngstown State University, will head to Buenos Aires with a pair of roller skates. She hopes to return with a first-place medal.
A former freestyle roller skater, Kristin will be competing as part of a precision team in the World Roller Skating Championships. Precision teams feature 18 skaters who skate in unison and form precise patterns like pinwheels.
Though new to international competition in the precision category, Kristin already has racked up championships for her individual routines. She placed third in freestyle in the nationals in 1999 and was an alternate in the world competition that year.
Knee injury
When she injured her knee in a car accident two years ago, however, she switched to the more grounded style of precision competition. "Precision is more fluid and has no jumps," Kristin said. The high-flying, hard-landing energy of freestyle is impossible for Kristin, at least for now.
"I love freestyle," she said. "It was just you out there, and you had the entire rink. I still cry sometimes about the accident. The doctors said rest my knee, but how do you rest a knee?"
Unlike ice skating, which is popular enough to be an Olympic event -- Kristin said she is "terrible at" ice skating -- roller skating seems to be "a dying sport." Kristin has to travel to Cleveland twice a week to practice on a team that supports skaters throughout the area.
Even so, it isn't a dying sport to her. Though grounded from freestyle, she's not grounded from the aspect of roller skating she likes the most -- the competition. It's in her blood.
How she started
Kristin first donned the quad-wheeled skates when she was just 2, following her older sister Nicole around the rink, both literally and figuratively. (Nicole also will be competing on the precision team in Buenos Aires as a last- minute substitution.)
"My feet were too small for the skates, so I had to have clip-ons," Kristin said with a laugh. Even now, she wears a diminutive size 3 roller skate. "My mom said she clipped the skates on me and away I went."
Their first roller arena was the Champion Rollerina, followed by the Cortland Roller Rink, Kristin said. Now, she practices Sunday mornings and Monday evenings in Brookpark, near Cleveland.
The precision team traveling to Buenos Aires placed second in the national competition in Lincoln, Neb. It is made up of skaters whose ages range from 13 to 54, with most competitors in their 20s. The team placed eighth in world competition last year.
Kristin is excited about the trip.
"It will be different for me," she said. For the entire five-minute routine, the 18 skaters must be "attached and in motion," rolling along forming shapes. Merges, intersects, and revolutions all present opportunities for skates to collide and skaters to fall.
"It's different for me. In freestyle, you affect only yourself. In precision, if you goof up, it hurts everyone," she said. "If you miss a hand lock, everyone will go flying. We're all nervous, but we have each other.
"It's hard, but I like the competition in both freestyle and precision. If you do good or bad, you know you worked hard, and you know you can improve," she said. "I watch all the videos I can and other skaters."
Kristin and Nicole will be skating together in competition for the first time. "She [Nicole] hasn't competed in seven years. They needed her; she's only had a month to prepare," Kristin said.
With three national medals, one in precision and two in freestyle, Kristin is hoping to add another medal in Buenos Aires. If she's lucky, she'll sneak in a little sightseeing, too. Unfortunately, with 16 hours of flight time, and keeping up with her studies, she doesn't expect to have too much time for it.
Devoting time to skating, to competitions, to two drives a week to Cleveland, isn't exactly a roll in the park, either. As an art education major, Kristin has a full schedule. Mondays are her busiest days with school, followed by work at YSU's Graphic Services, then the drive to practice.
Yet, said Kristin of roller skating, "It's always been a part of me." And, if she has her way, it always will be.
murphy@vindy.com