María Fernanda Timms catches the flag of Colombia after her win on the 1000 meter at the World Championships inline skating at the track of Montesilvano, Italy. Together with her teammate Kollin Castro, who takes the silver, she starts her victory lap. That yellow-blue-red flag is always somewhere around the track, because members of the Colombian delegation know it can be used very often: their country is the superpower at inline speed skating.
In recent years, and also in this World Championschips in Italy, other countries and riders – especially in the men’s categories – are winning as well. But still: with 32 medals so far, 19 of them gold, Colombia is at the top of the medal table with their overall very strong delegation of competitors. “Our athletes and coaches are top level. We analyze everything, we work with data and science, we have strong competitions. That sums up to the best results”, says Elias del Valle, one of the experienced coaches of the Colombian national team.
Add the young age kids in the South American country are starting with skating to that, and the formula of success is complete. 24 year old Timms, with three golden and one silver medal one of the superstars of the tournament, is a perfect example of how the system works. “I started when I was 5 years old I guess. It may seem young, but that’s a very common age to begin with the sport in our country. We learn how to ride, we do not compete yet.” The competition comes with age. There are lot of friendly races to let the kids get used to ride along with others, to learn the technical movements. When they grow up the competition gets harder.
“Skating is my life, it’s my job”, says Timms. “We get paid for good results, for medals. That’s way we train so hard. Sometimes two or three times a day, every day. Except on Sundays, that’s our rest day.” In the run-up to the World Championships Timms trains with the national selection from Colombia for about three months, the rest of the year every skater goes back to heir own club. “And there are lots of clubs”, assures Del Valle. “It’s massive. We have a lot of races, a lot of teams, a lot of competition. Our athletes are motivated to win each race so they can represent their country at this kind of tournaments, like this World Championships in Italy.”
At the top stands of the brand new track in Montesilvano Colombian reporters have made themselves a makeshift ‘studio’. Due to a lack of media facilities, they put some chairs together to place their laptops on it, tie some cables together and provide people back home from live commentary using the live stream from the event. Besides Italian television the Colombians are the only ones who broadcast this tournament. It shows the popularity of the sport. Del Valle: “After football, which is definitely the number one sport in Colombia, skating competes with cycling for the second popular sport.”
Unfortunately inline skating isn’t at the Olympics. “To become an Olympic athlete, would be amazing”, says Timms. “But I don’t know that’s gonna happen with our sport very soon. That’s why I live my dream right now: winning medals at the World Championships.” With the talent in Colombia, there could be medal opportunities in speed skating on ice, which is a sport at the Winter Olympics. But the Colombian government already invests in inline skating a lot, to be involved on that same level in a sport in a country where the temperatures are always above freezing point and where it never snows? No, that’s not gonna happen. “We can be good on ice, I guess, but for obvious reasons in a country like ours, we don’t have the infrastructure”, says Del Valle “It would be too expensive. We get results at inline skating, that’s why they invest in us. The closest we got to success is that one guy at the Youth Olympics, he was the first, but that’s about it.” The coach refers to Diego Amaya, who won silver at the mass start at the Youth Olympics of 2020 in Lausanne, Switzerland.
In the meantime Colombia needs to maintain their results. They are forced to keep their level high by the rise of other countries and competitors. The Belgian men are top class for about a couple of years now with off course superstar Bart Swings and coming man Jason Suttels, and in the junior category Metodej Jílek impresses this tournament. “Overall I’m satisfied with the results so far”, says Del Valle. “We made a few missteps and due to the rain some of our skaters can’t show their full potential. But it’s like every other tournament: we go back to Colombia to improve on every flaw we saw over here and we try to come back better.”