Israeli Rollerblade Team Showcases Their Sport

The Israeli professional rollerblade team arrived at the Sportech courts in Tel Aviv, to train with Eddy Matzger, winner of dozens of rollerblading competitions worldwide. 

Matzger is the first person to climb mount Kilimanjaro and the Pyramids of Giza in skates.

[Eddy Matzger, Inline Skate Champion And Rollerblading Coach ]: 

"I am being skating since 1988 and I used skating at first as a mean of transportation to get from my home to my class at university, doing shopping, doing my laundry, and on a trip to Holland, where my mother was born, I saw that there is such a thing as inline speed skating." 

Until recently, rollerblading has been an amateur sport in Israel.

[Itay Drori, Speed Rollerblades Skater]: 

"We have a weekly rollerblading session called Tel Aviv Rollers. We meet every Tuesday night, about three hundred skaters show up. It is one of the largest groups in Europe."

Is this a dangerous sport, and what are the advantages of learning to rollerblade?

[Eddy Matzger, Inline Skate Champion and Rollerblading Coach ]: 

"It's not dangerous if you became good at it. At first, of course, every thing is dangerous. It's like to learning a language. When you learn the language of rollers you can really enjoy yourself, you feel a sense of freedom and flying, and everything that we want to feel and forget about all your troubles".

However, rollerblading is not widely recognized in Israel.

This year, the Israeli rollerblade team has decided to participate in the Tel-Aviv marathon in the hope of bringing public awareness to the sport.

[Itay Drori, Speed Rollerblades Skater]: 

"To bring awareness to Israel for the first time, to let them watch a draft of ten, fifteen people skate at forty - fifty kilometers an hour. It's impressive enough that people will say wow, I want my child to do that next year."

And how good is the Israeli team?

[Eddy Matzger, Inline Skate Champion & Rollerblading Coach ]: 

"The Israeli team, they're great. They are natural athletes. I think because the Israeli(s) are smart in the head, they can also think and transfer their thinking into their coordinated body movements.”

Rollerblading is also an environmentally  friendly means of transportation, and skaters are hoping for a change in the way they are treated in Tel-Aviv.

[Alik Mintz, Skater And Environmental Activist]:

"My vision is that the road will be divided into three parts. One third for privately owned vehicles, one third for public transportation, and one third for bicycles and rollerblades."

On the day of the marathon the skaters are ready.

[Boaz Arad and Itay Drory – Marathon Participants]: 

"Our goal is for Boaz and I to finish first. After we finish first, we will see what to do next."

And indeed, Itay Drory finishes first in 43 minutes and Boaz Arad comes in second in 47 minutes.

See you at the Tel Aviv Marathon again next year.

NTD News, Tel Aviv, Israel

Reporter:Aviva Grunpeter         Photograper:Michael Ash