A few weeks ago I was playing squash-yes, I play squash and, yes, I’ll admit it publicly-over at FitRec when my ball flew out of the court and up onto the walkway above.

I frustratingly walked up the steps to retrieve the ball. It had found its way over to the three-court gym-that’s the area where they play indoor soccer, basketball and roller hockey. I couldn’t help but notice that a woman was out on the court. She was skating around the surface, majestically spinning, jumping and dancing all to the rhythm of a song only she could hear.

I was enchanted. I stopped and started to watch. Picture a sweaty guy holding a racket staring at a girl skating. Even Nancy Kerrigan would have been nervous. She slowed down and skated over to me, noticing my obvious interest.

I tried to think of something to justify my presence and remembered that I was a columnist for the FreeP. I could pass myself off as a journalist interested in her skating talents instead of just a creepy guy staring at her.

Her name is Rachel Leone. She’s a national champion. I can claim that I’m the best Boggle player in my family, maybe the best in the neighborhood, but I can’t fathom what it’s like to be the best at something in the country.

Rachel started roller skating when she was three years old and began competing at the age of seven. That’s right, roller skating. Not rollerblading, not ice skating, but roller skating. To most of us, it’s a fun activity that involves fake afros and doing the chicken dance-both which hit their prime in the 1970s. To Rachel, it’s a sport she practiced for two-and-a-half-hours a day, five days a week throughout middle school and high school.

It’s a sport that has taken her around the world, from stadiums filled with thousands of fans in Italy, Germany and Argentina to a military base in Colombia with armed guards surrounding the arena.

Here in America, roller skating isn’t nearly as lucrative a career as it can be overseas. In Italy, athletes sign endorsement deals and become known nationwide. The main way in which roller skating is featured in the U.S. is through the roller derby. Leone would consider competing, but she has to wait at least until she turns 21.

Artistic roller skating is fundamentally a lot like figure skating without the ice. Competitors skate around the rink performing various spins, jumps and technical maneuvers. In a given competition there are both a short and a long program, and the combined score determines the winner. Leone lovingly calls the long program “the hardest four-and-a-half minutes of your life.”

Twice, Leone won the national championships in her age group and finished as high as eighth in the world championships. She retired at age 17 to focus on preparation for college.

So what was she doing that day I caught her skating at FitRec? She’s planning a secret comeback. My general advice: Don’t tell sports writers your secrets. Her aim is to be ready for the world championships in Australia next year. She’s had some small injury setbacks and she’s just in the preliminary stages, but she’s getting back in the rink.

“I can go quite a long time without training and still come back pretty strong,” she said. “The fact that I haven’t seriously trained in about three years and I can still do a lot of what I used to says a lot about my body’s muscle memory.”

Leone’s always been able to do double jumps, even in combination, but to compete in the worlds she’ll have to add triple jumps to her routine.

“It’s going to be a lot of falling, at least 50 times a day,” Leone said.

She claims to have let herself get out of shape during her three-year hiatus, but “out of shape” for her is adding five pounds-out of shape for me is realizing I can’t walk to the third floor of College of Arts and Sciences building without getting winded.

This year’s world championships began yesterday in Murcia, Spain. The event will last two weeks as skaters from more than 20 countries compete in various skating events. Check out a YouTube clip, and you’ll see the sport is a lot like the ice skating you’re used to watching at the Olympics, goofy outfits and all.

We have many elite athletes here at Boston University and not all of them compete in varsity sports-at least not yet. If coach Parker needs an extra player for the games this weekend against Boston College, I suggest going D2: The Mighty Ducks style and suiting Leone up. She’s not as experienced on ice but give her a week to practice and she could be dazzling Eagles players with jumps and spins while Tom Morrow slips through for a couple of easy goals.

If you happen to be in the FitRec area, I highly suggest stopping by and seeing if you can catch a glimpse of Rachel skating. It’s not everyday you get a chance to watch someone at the top of their sport, and she won’t mind if you’re standing there staring like some weirdo.

Josh Lerner, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences, is a weekly columnist for The Daily Free Press. He can be reached at [email protected].