21 Apr 2006

While watching the 2002 Winter Olympics, Loredana Delucchi admired the elegant strides of the speed skaters and wished she knew how to skate.

Several months later, she purchased her first pair of inline skates. Although at first frightened to be “on wheels”, she went to a local skating rink and joined a speed skating practice.

Under the guidance of world-class inline speed skater Helen Havam (Bont) and the Redline Speed of New York City team, Loredana learned the sport of speed skating.

Finally, after a great deal of hard work and preparation, she entered her first national level half marathon. The Walt Disney Inline Marathon took place o­n April 2 in Orlando, FL, and Loredana captured a silver medal. She was awarded her prize by Olympic Gold Medalists and Speed Skating champions Joey Cheek and Derek Parra, the very skaters who inspired her to get into skating way back in 2002.

Congratulations to Loredana o­n her accomplishments.