Teresa Huang of South Hadley never really considered themself a serious athlete, but when they rediscovered roller derby in 2023 after a few years away from it, they thought it might be a fun thing to get back in to.
It would be casual, for fun. Extremely chill.
But somehow, two years later, Huang (aka Jack A. Lope) was lining up to skate with their teammates as part of Team Taiwan at the Roller Derby World Cup in Innsbruck, Austria. Forty-eight teams from all around the globe had converged in Innsbruck to contend for the title of top derby team in the world, and there was Jack, right in the middle of it all.
So, uh, that escalated quickly.
“I went from thinking I’d have a very casual time in roller derby to playing in an international tournament,” Jack said.
Jack was one of two skaters from Western Mass Roller Derby competing at the prestigious event last month. Myra Lam, aka Lammy Through, of Holyoke, was selected to represent Chinese Nations Roller Derby, and a third skater, Annabelle Hynes (derby name: Batman) was also slated to represent Chinese Nations Roller Derby before a broken ankle derailed her plans.
Both Lammy and Jack skated on what are commonly called “borderless” or “beyond borders” teams. No border derby teams are “teams that represent diasporic communities that transcend geographical borders.” Many, if not all of the skaters on both teams lived outside of Taiwan and China, coming from places including the Pacific Northwest, South Africa, the UK and several other places all around the world. Both Team Taiwan and Chinese Nations Roller Derby were also new to the World Cup this year, so getting to be part of the inaugural roster was meaningful to both skaters.
Lammy, a dynamic skater who is dual rostered on the competitive Boston Roller Derby club, always wanted to go to compete. Jack initially thought they might just volunteer or coach, but was encouraged to go as a skater. They eventually decided to skate, and also accidentally ended up managing most of the organizational side of things for Team Taiwan, earning them an award during the tournament as “The Only Adult On the Team.”
Competing in a tournament is tough, doubly so when you have to travel across an ocean to do so. Lammy did some sightseeing before she got to Innsbruck, while Jack’s travel was closer to the event kickoff. It was a bit chaotic – some players’ travel plans were disrupted, and as a result, Team Taiwan was missing one of their most experienced blockers on Day 1.
But once they got there, derby was still derby, and as Jack and Lammy skated with their teams, they got more familiar with their teammates and were able to gel. Both teams won one of their three games that they played, with Team Taiwan besting Team Latvia 178-158 and Chinese Nations Roller Derby earning a 231-155 victory over Team South Africa.
“Winning our first game against South Africa was pretty cool, knowing you’re winning for the first time ever of your team being in existence,” Lammy said on her team’s victory.
But though derby was, ostensibly, why they were there, it wasn’t what either skater remembered most about the event. Sure, Lammy enjoyed jumping the apex and signing autographs after the game, and Jack was glad they decided to skate and enjoyed the experience, but for both of them, skating with other people from all around the world who understood what it was like to grow up Taiwanese and Chinese was indescribable.
“A lot of my teammates, I feel like we connected on a really deep level,” Lammy said. “A lot of people said this healed something in them that they didn’t know needed fixing. It was a really beautiful experience.”
Jack echoed that sentiment about skating with Team Taiwan. For so long, Taiwan hasn’t been able to compete under that name at the highest level of athletics due to geopolitical tensions – at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, fans who brought banners and signs with “Taiwan” written on them had them confiscated or were asked to leave the venue. Getting to skate for Team Taiwan, at an international tournament, no less, was important to them and their teammates.
“The significance of us being at the World Cup, to not only have Taiwan on our jerseys and be referred to as Team Taiwan, but people are cheering for us as Team Taiwan … I wanted to acknowledge not only what it was like for us, but also people spectating and supporting us as a team skating under this team name and team banner,” Jack said. “Being with my team and feeling like part of making history together is a really cool, indescribable feeling. For me, even though roller derby was what brought us all together, that to me was not as at the forefront of my mind as all the community that came with it.”
Beyond the camaraderie they shared with their teammates, they found a group of people who generally shared the same values all gathered in the same space. Derby has long been seen as an “alternative” sport, and that was something that Jack noticed while at the tournament.
“I think for me the tournament was less about roller derby and more about this sort of alternative space that was very much in contrast to what’s happening in the United States politically. We’ve got so many skaters, 48 teams at the World Cup, pretty much all aligned on a message – free Palestine, and anti-fascism and trans athletes belong in sports,” Jack said.
The next World Cup won’t come around until 2029, but that doesn’t mean things have gone back to normal. Jack is working closely with their teammates in an effort to bring roller derby to Taiwan and get more Taiwanese skaters involved with the team, and is also hoping to skate with more affinity teams with other Asian and Pacific Islander (API) skaters. Lammy feels the same, hoping to get more opportunities to skate with API teams like API Fury. Both skaters have stayed in touch with their teammates virtually and in person – Jack has already gone to see some of their Team Taiwan teammates who live nearby in the U.S.
Casual? Hardly. But getting to compete at the Roller Derby World Cup clearly made a lasting impression on both skaters.
“This was just one of the best experiences of my life,” Lammy said. “It’s funny because I think about oh, when am I going to retire from derby? And now I think, ‘Well I can’t do it until 2029.’”