For anyone unfamiliar with the practice, roller skating is the act of gliding along on special shoes known as roller skates. These are a basic shoe or boot with four wheels attached to the bottom with ball bearings. Around for several hundred years, the very first patented roller skate came in 1760. The inventor was John Joseph Merlin, a Belgian who invented the device for his grandson. The design, however, was not a big hit with the general public.
By 1863, the American James Plimpton decided to improve on the existing model by creating the ârockingâ skate. The design allowed for easier turning around corners, and roller skates were finally popular with the masses. Since this improvement and the initial wave of interest, roller skating has never left the public. It even evolved into roller hockey, a competitive sport that debuted in the Olympics in 1992. Other sports variations derived from roller skating are roller derby, figure skating, and speed skating.