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Trading Skates for Sandals
Gypsy Tidwell to take break from skating
By Planet staff
posted Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Former World Team coach Gypsy Tidwell is trading skates for sandals this year as she heads to the Virgin Islands to take a job at a luxury resort.

Tidwell, a three-time world champion speed skater, will be in charge of charters and groups at the Marriott Resort & Royal Beach Casino on St. Kitts.

The new job will take her away from Waco, Texas, where she co-manages the Skate Country roller rink and serves as a coach of the Inside Edge speed skating team. Chris Tidwell will continue as coach.

Tidwell said she is looking forward to the challenge posed by her new job and likes the idea of living on the beach.

"I'm not saying I'm not going to be back to skating at some point, but right now, I'm taking a break," she said.

Tidwell grew up skating at her parents' roller rinks in Texas and went on to compete in both figure and speed skating.

In the mid-1990s, she won three gold medals at World Speed Skating Championships, four gold medals in the Pan American Games in Argentina and two gold medals in downhill skating in the X Games.

She was inducted into the USA Roller Sports Hall of Fame in 2005 and serves on the governing body's board of directors.

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