Two recent Lyons graduates and international roller skaters are heading to Paraguay to compete in the World Skate games.
David Chestnut, who graduated in 2025, has been to Paraguay to skate before as well as China and Italy.
Jamilex Valle, who graduated in the spring, will be making her first skating appearance in another country.
When Chestnut was asked to give some advice to Valle about the international experience, he turned to her, smiled, and said. “Do not lose your baggage.”
Then he added a small piece of advice on a serious note.
“Spend the most time in the moment,” he said. “I promise you, it’s amazing.”
The two ex-Lions are a part of Team USA that will compete in the showcase, which runs from Oct. 2 to Oct. 18 in Asuncion, Paraguay. They represent the Lynwood Skating team and, along with two other skaters, will compete in the quartet competition.
“I’m so excited because I’ve never done this sport outside of the United States,” Valle said. “It will be great to see what other countries have to offer and compare the differences in how we skate and how they skate.”
Lynwood skating coach John Peck said the United States is probably the third-best skating team in world competition behind Argentina and Italy.
When it comes to the quartet competition, Valle thinks the Americans can make some noise.
“We are working on more matching and being more synchro,” she said. “We all want to look as one instead of looking like four individual skaters.”
Valle is a freshman nursing student at Indiana and with the demands of that major, it’s tough to maintain a world-class skating career. But she loves the sport so much, she is not ready to give it up.
“Skating can show individuality,” she said. “I love the sport and I love the people. The people honestly make it what it is.”
Chestnut has been at it for 16 years. He is a student at Illinois-Chicago, and the Brookfield resident also wants to keep going for as long as he can.
“I love the environment and the rush you get from performing,” he said. “My mom (Tiffany Thomas) was my coach and she coaches all of my sisters, so I grew up skating.”
The finance major said that when he started at Lyons, few people knew about his skating adventures, but that changed.
“At the beginning, I didn’t really share it,” he said. “But by my junior and senior year I started to export it more. Why hide it? It’s an amazing thing to do. It’s a fun sport.”