Portland's Roller Derby Team Defeats New York for World Domination

We're number one! We're number one!

By Lizzy Acker

Portland is finally a national champion in a sport Portlanders probably thought we were a national champion in already! And, no, we aren't talking about the football/soccer team with all the scarves. We're talking about roller derby.

The only sport in the world that rewards the ability to come up with a cool name may be confusing to the layperson. But that doesn't make it any less awesome that Portland's team, the Rose City Wheels of Justice, upset Gotham Girls Roller Derby on Nov. 8 for the International Women's Flat Track Derby Association championship in St. Paul, Minn. ESPN called Gotham "roller derby's Goliath" and noted that the New York team was the five-time defending champion. Well, no more.

Our coffee is better, our beard and flannel game is better, and now our roller-derby team is better, too. Sorry, New York City sports fans, who also suffered through the Mets' loss to the Kansas City Royals in the World Series.

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