USA Roller Sports championships brings fast action, millions of dollars to Lincoln

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) — If you have a need for speed, and a little bit of everything in between over the next few weeks, Lincoln is the place to be.

The USA Roller Sports national championships are back until the beginning of August. The event brings all kinds of action, and money, to our community.

“Thirty-second year in Lincoln, Nebraska, which is amazing,” said Ricci Porter-Kmetz, the executive director of USA Roller Sports. 

That’s all since 1962 when the event first arrived in Lincoln. This year’s competition includes roller derby, artistic skating and of course, speed skating.

“Lincoln is the spot at least in speed skating, people come to go the fastest they’ve ever gone,” Porter-Kmetz said.

But it’s the atmosphere that makes Lincoln a special host, according to the hundreds of athletes who participate. Most of them point toward the National Museum of Roller Skating as a big selling point.

“That kind of gives it a whole new energy because you’re like, ‘woo, everything about roller skating is here,” said Mo Sanders, a roller derby athlete and coach from Dallas. “You see the old stuff and the new stuff. The historical context of everything with the future of roller skating. Roller derby, speed, you get to see everything here.”  

The competition also has a multi-million dollar economic impact on the city with hotels and restaurants seeing a good chunk of that.

But it’s the Lincolnites themselves that keep the organization coming back year after year. 

“The people are nice, you know that,” Porter-Kmetz said. “The people here are super nice. So so many things about Lincoln just scream skating to me.” 

So don’t expect skating to leave the Capital City any time soon.

The competition runs until Aug. 4. Right now, you can check out speed skating until Sunday. Then artistic skating gets underway on Monday, July 17. This is all happening at the Speedway Village near West Van Dorn and Highway 77.