Lansing native Lillian Gardner spent many hours at the Lynwood Sport Center.
With her mother, Amy, being a longtime general manager of the roller rink, Lillian had some time to watch and dream as older skaters perfected their crafts.
“I used to sit on the little benches and watch all of the artistic people skate,” Lillian said. “I was on skates when I was walking.”
Garder, 19, and now living in Cedar Lake, Indiana, is one of three skaters from the Lynwood Skate Club who will represent Team USA at the World Skate Artistic Figures World Cup event Friday through Sunday at the Lynwood Sport Center.
In one form of another, the competition has been around since 1947, and the United States hosted it in 1947, 1962, 1983, 1988 , 1992, 2000 and 2004.
Gardner is thrilled to have such a big international competition in the same building where she grew up.
She has skated in Paraguay, Argentina, Colombia, Italy, Germany and China, but staying close to home is a treat.
“This rink was basically my daycare,” she said. “It is a dream for me to do this.
More Top Picks Ihealth Track Smart
“It’s amazing. It’s nice having everything so close. To be able to host and represent our country in America is great. I don’t even remember the last time something like this was here.”
This weekend’s meet will feature championships in the cadet, youth, junior and senior divisions.
Countries scheduled to be represented include the United States, Argentina, Australia, Germany, Italy and New Zealand.
Gardner, who will compete in the senior ladies division, joins Woodridge’s Ananya Hariharan (junior ladies) and Michigan’s Caden Fischer (junior men) in representing the Lynwood club.
For seven years, Fischer has made the 7-hour round trip from Brighton, Michigan, to Lynwood. The 19-year-old said he loves the coaching he receives in Lynwood, and his love for the sport keeps him coming back.
“Every year I can do something different,” he said. “It’s all new and never the same.”
Hariharan, 14, said her parents got her involved in skating to burn off energy. She started developing into a world-class skater thanks to her training in Lynwood.
“Once I started coming here, they started giving me routines and music with songs that I love and genres that I love and I ended up connecting with it,” she said. “I love house music and uplifting music.”
John Peck, the owner of the rink and a USA Roller Sports coach, said he is looking forward to the big weekend as he estimates more than 100 competitors and 50 coaches from all over the globe will be there.
“It’s exciting,” he said. “It’s a lot of work. It’s crazy. But it’s going to be competitive. Very, very competitive.”
Aside from the World Cup Figures, some of Peck’s skaters will take part in the World Skate Games in Paraguay from Oct. 2-18, which will feature more than 10,000 athletes from 100 countries.
That includes Lansing’s Sami Krusza, 22, who will compete in her eighth world championship event and will be in the solo dance division and quartet.
Krusza will volunter at the Lansing event before getting ready for Paraguay.
“I’ll be soaking up all of the atmosphere here,” she said. “To have a World Cup here is pretty incredible. These are the best in the world in what they do.
More Top Picks Best Fireproof Home Safes
“To see people at their highest level is a great opportunity.”
The T.F. South and Valparaiso University graduate said she has skated since age 4 and competed since age 6. Krusza worked to get a physics degree and hopes to someday become a nuclear physicist and work on research to cure cancer.
There will be competition all day Friday but the opening ceremonies and Cadet Award ceremonies will take place at 7 p.m. For more information, go to worldskate.org.
The Lynwood rink was also made famous in 2005 in the Bow Wow movie “Roll Bounce.” It was called the Sweetwater Roller Rink in the movie and the large neon Sweetwater Rink sign is still prominent inside the rink.
Jeff Vovra is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown