Elise skating

When I started roller skating I wanted to be a street hockey player and went to learn to skate better - I had no idea the sport I do now even existed then but when I saw the power of the jumps and spins I wanted a go too.

My sport is Artistic Free skating, which is a form of roller skating. The easiest way to describe it is like ice skating but with wheels. We do the same sorts of spins and jumps as you would see in the Olympics, and because we use quad skates we can even do some elements the ice skaters cant - heel spins, inverted camels, layover camels.

I compete all over Europe for Great Britain usually in countries like Germany, Italy or Slovenia. I know that most people see the costumes and the rhinestones and think my sport is soft but Aggressive skating - pah! Wait till your doing 720° combination jumps with nothing to break your fall onto concrete but lycra and a smile - then you've got an idea of the bottle needed to be a good artistic free skater.

Elise skating

Through the week I train at the Lapwing Centre in Brinnington, Stockport, but at weekends we drive to County Durham to train with my skating team Durham and District.

At the British Championships the other week, we did really well again this year, skaters I train with won Senior Ladies Figures, Free, Combined, Junior Ladies Figures and Free and I won Cadet Free skating. Making my 5th consecutive British title.

Internationals are my favourite though - I'm going to Portugal this week to represent Great Britain in the European Championships and the week after I am in Germany for Cup of Europe.

During the school holidays I managed to win a gold medal skating in Croatia Training is a lot tougher than people imagine and as well as skating I have to do dry training (practising jumps and spins off skates), gym work and flexibility training.

Unlike ice skaters, who slide when they fall - if we fall, we thud on concrete - so at times when I am learning new jumps or spins I feel nervously excited at the thought to achieving something great and bruised from not quite managing it.