Elizabeth Longo has a need for speed.
It all started after watching Apolo Ohno win the gold medal for short track speed skating in the 2002 Winter Olympics. Longo, now 19 and a sophomore at The University of Memphis, was only in the fifth grade, but found she had a passion for the sport. The only problem was that the lone skating team in Memphis was in a state of rapid decline.
Jonathan McGraw, a member of the then-Memphis Speed Team and the 2001 state champion in several skating events, moved to Jackson, Tenn., for college. But when he returned to the city in 2005, there was no longer a team, and no rinks were hosting practices.
"When people asked if I played sports in high school, I said, 'Yeah, I was a speed skater,'" McGraw said. "But people just don't know about this sport."
For the next five years, McGraw worked to broker deals with local rinks and market the sport to whoever would listen. Eventually his work paid off with the formation of his own team, which included Longo.
And now, three nights a week at FunQuest Skating Center in Collierville, 10 to 15 racers on McGraw's squad regularly practice for two hours per night.
The Collierville Speed Team has quickly risen in this niche scene, taking medals at the 2010 National Inline Racing Association National Championships less than a year after forming. Longo got a bronze medal at the championships, which were held in September.
"(Speed skating) is a real challenge," Longo said. "It's fast-paced but at the same time you need endurance. You're basically squatting for a long period of time."
Inline speed skating evolved from racing with regular roller skates but is similar enough to ice speed skating that many racers switch between wheels and blades. His "family-friendly" team consists of racers who range in age from 8-years-old to mid-40s.
The team has three collegiate racers, featuring two from The U of M: Anita Vongphrachanh, 19, and Longo.
Although speed skating may not seem like mainstream athletics, Longo said it requires the same amount of practice, dedication and confidence as other sports.
"You have to get over your fears pretty darn fast in this sport," Longo said, "because if you get on the line and show fear, you are going to lose."
Also a competitive swimmer who has completed two triathlons, Longo said she would continue to speed skate until she broke both of her knees.
Then, she said, she would get up and take one final lap to prove that she could.
The freedom of being out on the track and competing against other racers, Longo added, makes all of the scrapes and bruises that come with the sport worth it.
"It's just a whole adrenaline rush," Longo said. "I can't really compare it to anything else. You're going ridiculously fast and there is only one thing stopping you from getting hurt: yourself."
The most common skating injury is road rash, and Longo is usually sporting a few smarts. At practice last Wednesday she had a gauze bandage wrapped around a particularly rough abrasion on her knee.
But even then she had no problem hitting the track and doing it again.
"I don't think I've ever seen her without a band-aid," said Vicky Martin, the manager at FunQuest. "She's fearless."
