Ever thought to yourself, why isn’t there more roller skating and blading at the Olympics?
Us too.
While the skating world waits to be included we do have the World Skate Games – an international multi-sport event, comprising all the world roller sport disciplines as regulated by the World Skate international federation.
These Games are held every 2 years and currently involve 12 World Championships in one multi-sport event.
Previous events were held in Nanjing (2017), Barcelona (2019), and Buenos Aires (2022), and will debut in Italy in 2024.
In 2024 the games will be held from the September 6-22, with an estimated participation of over 12,000 people including athletes, coaches, and delegations from 100 countries worldwide.
Disciplines include skateboarding, roller and inline freestyle, scootering, speed skating, skate-cross, downhill, slalom, rink hockey, inline hockey, artistic skating and a version of roller derby (FIRS ruleset).
According to Skate Australia, Australia will field a team of over 200 athletes across several disciplines including artistic, inline hockey, roller derby, scootering, rink hockey and skateboarding.
Lucky Skates sponsored skater Cannon Bill (of Perth Men’s Derby) has been selected for the Australian men’s roller derby team and will be repping Team Australia on the world stage.
He has been sharing his journey, from selection try outs to team training, with us.
So, what is a day in the life of a skater on the men’s roller derby team?
“Training sessions and tryouts took place on the other side of the country so being part of the team means a fair bit of travelling for a west coast skater.
“There were multiple training sessions that we had to attend to learn strategies and work together as a team.
“On the latest trip I left for the airport after work for an 10pm Friday flight (AWST) and had a bit of sleep on the plane for the overnight 5 hour flight.
“There is a time difference of 2 hours so by the time I got into Brisbane it was around 5am (AEST) Saturday.
“Once I got into Brisbane, I drove straight to the Team Managers house which is about 1 hour away for a quick nap before training on the Sunshine Coast.
“The men’s team was first up to train, we trained strategies for 3 hours.
“World Skate rules are very different to WFTDA derby.
“It’s a lot more like old school derby, very fast, lots of running. There are big differences where lead jammer is whichever jammer is in front and the pivot becomes the jammer with no star pass.
“Because I’m so unfamiliar with these rules I get to play a blocker.
“We are never allowed to skate anti-derby direction so I just lock down the jammer and hold them there and occasionally am told to run to the front.
“After training we scrimmaged against the woman’s team for another 1.5 hours.
“After scrim we had some free time so I could take my stuff to the accommodation which was in the same complex as our training venue.
“Then we had some free time so I went for a walk to the beach and had a relaxing walk/wade.
“At night we had a team dinner, then went to sleep early at 9:30pm having only had a few hours sleep the night before.
“On Sunday, I got up at 6:30am and went for a walk to a café and had a nice breakfast before packing up our room.
“From there I went to train with CARD (Coastal Assassin Roller Derby) for 2 hours as they train at the same training venue.
“Next up was the woman’s team training which was on 11am-1pm which I stayed to watch to try to absorb more World Skate strategies.
“Then we did a World Skate team photo shoot.
“After this we went straight into men vs women’s scrim. This went well with lots of team bonding and strategy learnt.
“Then men’s training for another 2.5 hours which brought it up to 5pm.
“After training I had a quick shower and went straight to the airport (an hour away) for my 8pm flight back home to Perth.
“My goals for World Skate Games 2024 are simple: improve my grasp on a new and interesting ruleset, be fast/don’t stop, hold my ground and be competitive and assertive on track.
“Teamwise, my goal is to finish with a medal.
“We will be fighting hard to beat team USA, the reigning champs.”
If you want to be like Bill, here’s the gear Bill is repping for the event:
We wish Bill and Team Australia all the best at the World Skate Games.
While we know him at home as Cannon Bill #316, over at the World Skate Games he will be competing under Pearce #44.
More info on the World Skate games here.
