Overview of Roller Derby
Roller derby is a roller skating contact sport played on an oval track by two teams of five skaters. It is played by approximately 1,250 amateur leagues[note 1] worldwide, though it is most popular in the United States.
A 60-minute roller derby game, or bout, is a series of two-minute timed jams. Each team, typically with a roster of 15, fields five skaters during each jam: one jammer, designated with a star on their helmet, and four blockers. During each jam, players skate counterclockwise on a circuit track. The jammer scores a point for each opposing blocker they lap. The blockers simultaneously defend by hindering the opposing jammer, while also playing offense by maneuvering to aid their own jammer. Because roller derby uses a penalty box, power jams, in which one team has a temporary numerical advantage after a foul, can have a major effect on scoring.
While the sport has its origins in the banked-track roller-skating marathons of the 1930s, Leo Seltzer and Damon Runyon are credited with evolving the sport to its competitive form. Professional roller derby quickly became popular; in 1940, more than 5 million spectators watched in about 50 American cities. In the ensuing decades, however, it predominantly became a form of sports entertainment, where theatrical elements overshadowed athleticism. Gratuitous showmanship largely ended with the sport's grassroots revival in the first decade of the 21st century.[5] Although roller derby retains some sports entertainment qualities such as player pseudonyms and colorful uniforms, it has abandoned scripted bouts with predetermined winners.[6]
Modern roller derby is an international sport, mostly played by amateurs. It was under consideration as a roller sport for the 2020 Summer Olympics.[7][8][9] Fédération Internationale de Roller Sports (FIRS), recognized by the International Olympic Committee as the official international governing body of roller sports, released its first set of Roller Derby Rules for the World Roller Games, organised by World Skate, that took place September 2017 in Nanjing, China. Most modern leagues (and their back-office volunteers) share a strong "do-it-yourself" ethic[10] that combines athleticism with the styles of punk and camp.[11] As of 2020, the Women's Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) had 451 full member leagues and 46 apprentice leagues[12] and the Roller Derby Coalition of Leagues (RDCL) supporting women's banked track roller derby had eight full member leagues.[13]