Speed, contact, strategies… Roller derby is a sport as impressive as it is unknown. Poitiers Roller Derby will help to better understand it by hosting the second stage of the N3 championship on May 16 and 17, 2026, at the Jean-Paul-Gomez gymnasium in Ligugé. Five matches will be held on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. and four matches on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. This will be the first time national teams will compete, with nine clubs participating: Toulouse, Tarbes, Mérignac, La Roche-sur-Yon, Anglet, Angoulême, Poitiers, Nantes, and Pau.
The principle of roller derby? Two teams of fifteen players on skates face off for an hour, split in two by halftime, on an oval track called the track. Halftimes are divided into “jams,” two-minute game sections. Each team fields five players, with continuous substitutions. A player, called a jammer, must “pass the hips of an opposing defender” to score a point, covered by the four defenders on their side. Safety rules limit the number of fouls to seven per player, risking being put in “jail”: out of the match.
This sport emerged in the 1920s in the United States as mixed endurance races on a track. Over the following decades, the sport nearly disappeared due to lack of funding, before being revived by feminist and minority movements. Today, roller derby is known for its values of solidarity and inclusion.
“We heard very little about the victory of France at the world championships in Orléans.”
Angeline Manceau, also known as Ark’Ange on the track and coach of the Broyeuses du Poitou at Poitiers Roller Derby, has been practicing this sport for over a decade. A former figure skating enthusiast, she stumbled upon it “by chance.” Many discover this sport through social networks, word of mouth, or local events as the federations and clubs remain relatively “small.” This “militant sport” has, however, gained popularity in recent years. Teams like N3F +(1) from Poitiers Roller Derby can now participate in a national championship for the first time, being complete.
Despite this slight increase in visibility, Angeline Manceau laments the lack of sports news coverage on the subject: “We heard very little about the victory of France at the world championships in Orléans, even in sports magazines.” She hopes to see the inclusion of roller derby expand to other sports. For her, “there is room for everyone.”
(1) Inclusive category including cisgender women, transgender women, and gender minority individuals.
