I was looking to shoot something totally different and wondered if there was female roller derby here in Las Vegas….with a little help from Google, I found Sin City Rollergirls and coincidentally they had a double header match scheduled for Saturday night . Female roller derby in Las Vegas on a Saturday night? Sure! Let’s do this!
Roller derby is a contact sport played by two teams of five members roller skating in the same direction around a track. Game play consists of a series of short match ups (jams) in which both teams designate a jammer who scores points by lapping members of the opposing team. The teams attempt to hinder the opposing jammer while assisting their own jammer—in effect, playing both offense and defense simultaneously. Roller derby is played by approximately 1,250 amateur leagues worldwide, nearly half of them outside the United States.
While the sport has its origins in the banked-track roller skating marathons of the 1930s, Leo Seltzer and Damon Runyon are credited with the basic evolution of the sport to its initial competitive form. Professional roller derby quickly became popular; in 1940, more than five million spectators watched in about 50 American cities. In the ensuing decades, however, it predominantly became a form of sports entertainment where the theatrical elements overshadowed the athleticism. This gratuitous showmanship largely ended with the sport’s contemporary grassroots revival in the first decade of the 21st century. Although some sports entertainment qualities such as player pseudonyms and colorful uniforms were retained, scripted bouts with predetermined winners were abandoned.
Modern roller derby is an international sport dominated by all-female amateur teams, in addition to a growing number of male, unisex, and junior roller derby teams, and was (as a roller sport) under consideration for the 2020 Summer Olympics. Most modern leagues (their back-office volunteers included) share a strong “do it yourself” ethic which combines athleticism and elements from camp. As of 2014, the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA), had 243 full member leagues and 114 Apprentice Leagues.
Every year Las Vegas hosts “Rollercon” and in 2017 it will be July 26-30 at the Westgate Resort and Convention Center. RollerCon started just like most of the new generation of DIY roller derby leagues. In the winter of 2004, a few friends started talking, came up with a crazy idea, and ran with it. At that point, there were just a handful of leagues, very spread out, and very few bouts (interleague bouting was still just a sparkle in our eyes) — and the WFTDA was still in its “United Leagues Coalition” infancy. So we all traveled when we could to see each other play — but we didn’t get enough opportunities! We were looking for a chance to hang out.
The sport of roller derby has a long and colorful history. From the sport’s genesis in the 30’s it’s been organized by, managed, skated and loved by iconoclasts. The new generation of roller derby is no different — and the truth is that iconoclasts don’t always appreciate each other. But what’s really great about RollerCon’s history is that it’s one of very few places where everyone drops the drama and just gets together to skate and have fun. Skaters on both sides of league splits will line up together in scrimmages and later at the bar, throwing back shots. It’s not all sister and brother and siblinghood, of course, but everyone lets the strife go and either makes peace or keeps their peace at RollerCon. Because RollerCon is for everyone, and everyone respects that.
