Team Canada – Team Canada Women’s Roller Derby is en route to Manchester for the third edition of the Roller Derby World Cup, flat-track roller derby’s governing international competition. Hosted by Rainy City Roller Derby at EventCity in Trafford, Greater Manchester, from 1 to 4 February 2018. the tournament will include 38 teams from 37 countries, plus a team of athletes representing Indigenous nations across the globe.  

Team Canada tournament roster

Team Canada’s 20-person tournament roster is drawn from the national team of 26 athletes who, along with five development athletes, have been training as a team monthly since late 2016. 

The tournament roster is:

Tournament structure

The Roller Derby World Cup includes nations with vastly different international experience and development programs. According to Roller Derby World Cup organizers, “With 38 teams attending the 2018 RDWC, traditional group selection structures simply don’t scale for a 4 day event, on 4 tracks, whilst single elimination tournaments would be extremely unfair to the teams eliminated in the first round. As a result, RDWC 2018 will be played as a three phase event.” The first day of competition, Phase 1, will feature non-standard 30-minute games, to be fed into a ranking algorithm to set matchups for Phase 2 on Days 2 and 3, producing a Top 16 ranking for the final phase. The final Phase will be a Top-8 tournament producing a ranked 1-8 places, and consolation ranking games for the remaining Top 16 teams.

Team Canada preparations

Canada enters the tournament having placed fourth at the 2014 World Cup in Dallas and second in 2011 in Toronto. The current roster has played a number of friendlies against leagues in North America, and placed second in the international invitational “Northern HemisFear” tournament in Nottingham in August 2017. 

Head Coach Jessica Paternostro has emphasized team cohesion in her vision for the Canada’s performance. Preparing for the team’s final training camp in Montreal in mid-January, she said, “Team Canada has been practicing for over a year. With every practice and scrimmage opportunity, the team developed into a strong unit that continues to strive for their best. We have one more practice before heading to Manchester. Our goal is to fine tune our strategies and to connect as a team in a less demanding environment prior to landing in England. We are ready.” 

About Canada Roller Derby and Team Canada

Canada Roller Derby is a non-profit organization founded in 2017, whose mission is to manage Canada’s national roller derby team(s) and to develop the sport across Canada. 

As it stands, Team Canada athletes and the current World Cup mission are self-funded. A fundraiser to offset travel costs is online at the non-profit fundraising portal Generosity, until 30 January: https://www.generosity.com/sports-fundraising/team-canada-roller-derby–2/x/17095261.

TEAM CANADA LINKS

Web:  http://canadarollerderby.com
Facebook:  TeamCanadaRollerDerby
Twitter: @TeamCanadaRD
Instagram: @teamcanadarollerderby

Fundraising: https://www.generosity.com/sports-fundraising/team-canada-roller-derby–2/x/17095261

EVENT LINKS 

Roller Derby World Cup:  http://rollerderbyworldcup.com

Tickets: https://rollerderbyworldcup.com/2018-tickets/

Venue: http://www.eventcity.co.uk

Live stream: https://rollerderbyworldcup.com/live-stream/

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