When I read Hooligals post about the plans for Canada and England to meet this summer I realized how far we up here in the north have to go to be able to compete on a national level. But then it struck me. We almost have enough skaters for a national team already!
When the first steps of Stockholm Rollerderby were taken back in April ‘07 we were convinced that we were the only swedes in the world that were into this sport. But pretty soon we were, much to our delight, proven wrong. Every now and then skaters from leagues all over send us mail and tell us how great it is that we have gotten things going “back home”. And it’s not just swedes that drop us a line, skaters with roots in any of the scandinavian countries consider us their “home team” since we still are the only ones over here.
Even though we hardly are a functioning league in Stockholm, Scandinavia is just a few skaters away from having a full National Team if all scandinavians out there would team up! Thanks to skaters like Vix Viking(LRG), Kategory 5(TXRD), Tear E. Hatchet(BBDD), Kit Lizette(LRR) and Swede Hurt(JCRG) scandinavia is already putting it’s mark in the derby world.
And when you think about it, that is not so different from the way it looks in “the big sports” like hockey and football. When the swedish national team is put together very few of the players are playing in the leagues back home. In hockey most are playing in the NHL and in football they are playing Premier League, Serie A, Bundesliga or some other league.
Ok, I realize that there are very few other similarities. We have no budget compared to SvIF or SvFF, we do not have thousands of players to chose from, we do not have huge traning facilities or 36.000 supporters coming to our games. But still, I must be allowed to dream about a Scandinavian Roller Derby Team!
But dreaming about what might be true in a distant future is not the only reason to write this blog-post. Another reason to write it is to make sure that everyone knows that all the help and support we get from all you scandinavians out there is very, very appreciated. Not that we don’t appreciate and value the help and support that we get from all you non-scandinavians, but the happiness and joy that we see in the mails from all these emigrats, when they find out about the league back home, is something special. And we love it!
And lets face it. Skaters like Vix, Swede, Kit and the others are the Zlatan, Foppa Forsberg and Fredrik Ljungberg of roller derby! We follow their leagues, check results and try to find out how well “our” skaters did in the last bout. Knowing that there are skaters out there that we know and know us and where we are(both geographically, culturally and in the league development area), and to be able to follow their development, is one of those things that really help keep our spirits up when there is no place to practice, nowhere to get hold of skates, no-one who understand what the drokk you are talking about when you mention the Rust Riot and the rain is pouring down so hard that it even would be impossible to skate on the parkinglot outside the door!
To say it in the most simple way:
Vi älsklar er!
