We are the Dust City Rollers, a roller derby team from Graz, Austria. We stand for breaking the norms and breaking the binary. We want to defy gender expectations and create a supportive and non-discriminatory environment in sports. We welcome anyone who experiences marginalization based on their gender to join our team as skaters! This includes but is not limited to women (cis, trans and intersex), non-binary and trans masc individuals. Beyond that, we welcome everyone who shares our values to join our league as officials or volunteers. We want to spread the love for roller derby, a full contact team sport on quad skates and – in our humble opinion – the best sport in the world!
Dust City Rollers was established in 2016 as the third roller derby league in Austria. Roller derby is a full contact sport played on roller skates, originating in the USA and is predominantly played by people of marginalized genders (women [cis, trans and intersex], non-binary and trans masc individuals) around the globe. The governing body of the sport is the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA). As a aspiring member of the WFTDA, our team follows the WFTDA gender statement. Therefore, all individuals who are marginalized based on their gender (for example, women [cis, trans and intersex], non-binary and trans masc individuals) can join our team as skaters. Beyond that, we welcome all individuals who share our values to join our league as an official or volunteer.
Our league is skater owned and run, meaning we make all our decisions in a democratic process and share all the work among our members according to the do-it-yourself (DIY) principle. Every member can and should participate to keep the league running.
We train on-skates three times a week including off-skates training (strength, agility, fitness) once a week. Our practice time is split between the A-Team (Sunday afternoon and Wednesday evening) and the B-Team (Sunday afternoon and Thursday evening). The training sessions are prepared and led by our skaters. We sometimes also invite guest coaches from other national and international teams.
In addition to the practice times, we also have regular rule sessions to improve our understanding of the game and organizational meetings to run the league. As a team, we travel to away games to compete or host home games ourselves. Most importantly, we strive to be a supportive community and have fun together, therefore we do all kinds of social activities together.
Our league is skater owned and run, meaning we make all our decisions in a democratic process and share all the work among our members according to the do-it-yourself (DIY) principle. Every member can and should participate to keep the league running.
