Marco de Santi came to the US with $100 in his pocket and he spoke no English. It was both comical, inspiring and sad… Until he became a World Champion. And when skating died, Marco went to the Cirque du Soleil.

Check the podcast on Libsyn | Itunes | Thepowellmovement.com.

Marco de Santi has the most interesting journey of any athlete I’ve had on the podcast. Born in a less than desirable situation in Sao Paolo, Brazil, Marco did what every kid does; he played soccer until he found skateparks. Marco quit team sports and headed to the USA at age 15, with literally nothing, to make his pro skating dream happen. While Marco eventually became a world Champion, inline was dropped by X-Games, and the organizing body of his sport didn’t include Marco in future events. So the first skater to land a triple was forced out of competition and into a life of LOVE, which he performs in every night with the Cirque de Soleil. It doesn’t get more rags to riches than this one.

TIMECODES: 03:30: Issues around his backyard vert ramp, growing up in Sao Paolo, and family life 10:00: Soccer, finding skating, stereotypes, roller rink skateparks, how does he pay to get to the US, and how does he stay 21:00: Not speaking English, meeting me, seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, and problems with judging 32:00: Mountain Dew, other sponsors, never wearing pads, and spending time at Woodward 34:00: The Yasutoko, the triple, and what’s cool about X Games 39:30: Rollerblade: Ski season may be over, but that feeling lasts all year with inline skating 41:30: Nerves, Silver at X Games, losing X Games, and then getting screwed by the ASA 47:00: Winning World Championships, all things Cirque de Soleil’s LOVE (skating, money, injury, perks), building his Vegas empire, and day trading 54:00: Inappropriate Questions with Hardcore Brazil, Carlos Pianowski.

Photos.

Riding Zone is a popular extreme sport channel in France (more than one million sub on Youtube) who has been around since 2007. They produced a really interesting documentary about rollerblading available on Youtube (PLAY) ; the Youtube version is 9 minutes long and the full version is available here (24min), unfortunately behind a paywall (disclaimer: this link is not affiliated).

The documentary features interviews of Stan Kogutyak, Chris Edwards, Toto Ghali, Taig Khris, Wilfried Rossignol and a ton of relevant rollerblading content.

X-Games 1996, french broadcast (M6) with interviews of Chris Edwards, Arlo Eisenberg, Rene Hulgreeen & more. Video Offline.

The video stops shaking at 0:30. Video courtesy of Chris Creative (Vimeo).

Eito Yasutoko posted a story about his experience at the X-Games 2000, the article is in japanese, so you might want to try this rough Google translation.

Taig Khris started to upload videos from 1997-2001 on Youtube, featuring Lausanne, ASA Milwaukee, X-Games 1999, Palavas les Flots, Bercy 1997, World Team Challenge 2001, Hermosa & more.

Check the Taig Khris Youtube Channel.