Waterloo region skaters help bring home bronze for Team Canada in Roller Derby World Cup
CBC
The Team Canada Junior Roller Derby female team are celebrating after bringing home a bronze medal against the world team at the Junior Roller Derby World Cup in France.
Canada's open division team slid into a fourth place finish. The open division "does not ask gender of anyone," according to the Women's Flat Track Derby Association. "Anyone who chooses to play in this division may participate," their website says.
Canada sent 35 players to compete in the World Cup late last month. Both the female and open teams had 15 players each with five players who participated in both divisions.
Three players on the third place team were from Waterloo region and the surrounding area: Makayla "Ma-Kill-Ya" Soper is from Stratford, and both Tess "Tornado" Charlton and Katherine "Skatie McPain" McLean live in Guelph.
"I never knew there was something else out there that I could like, fall in love with and be so good at," said Soper about roller derby.
Soper put her first pair of skates on when she was just eight years old. She was with her older sister and their friends. They all already knew how to skate, she said.
"I knew how to skate. I just didn't know the fundamentals, the basics, how to rock with it, I guess."
Nine years later, she's on the top team. But she had to train for the last three years of her roller derby career to get to the position where making the World Cup team seemed realistic.
"A lot of hard work was put into getting to where I am today," she said.
The World Cup teams play in Level 3. Soper said in Level 1, there's no contact. Level 2 is just pushing. And then Level 3 is full contact.
Soper was only 13 when she first made Level 3.
She had always wanted to turn roller derby into more than just a game for her, she said. "I just never thought I would make a national team. I think eight-year-old me would be screaming."
The open division team didn't share the same luck as the female team, losing their bronze medal game to Australia.
But that doesn't upset Kitchener's Valerie "Valkyrie" Klassen too much.
Netflix has agreed to buy Warner Bros. Discovery's TV and film studios and streaming division for $72 billion US, a deal that would hand control of one of Hollywood's most prized and oldest assets to the streaming pioneer that has upended the media industry.
CBC Calgary kicks off its annual Make the Season Kind campaign this morning at Fratello Coffee Roasters.
CBC Newfoundland and Labrador is kicking off its annual holiday campaign, helping to raise money to support local food banks.
If all goes according to plan, at 6 a.m. AT on Saturday people working at the IWK Health Centre will become the test case for a generational change to Nova Scotia’s health-care system.
One month after Prime Minister Mark Carney announced what he called "generational" military spending, New Brunswick’s defence ecosystem is on high alert.
Miranda Mirlycourtois, 34, looks directly at the camera and makes a confession.
Saskatoon city hall says police spending is projected to be $2.6 million over budget this year. That pushes the city into a $1.2-million deficit position, according to a report that will be considered by city council next week.
Students at the University of Regina are days away from deciding whether a newly formed student association should become their official representative body.
All public schools on P.E.I. are closed Friday and thousands of Maritime Electric customers are without power as strong winds create hazardous travel conditions across the province.
Prince Rupert, B.C., residents are celebrating the holidays this year with coastal flair.
In the four years Chelsey Simmonds has worked at the Eva Rothwell Centre, she has seen the need increase every year at the centre’s community food pantry.
CBC is once again looking to make the holiday season kind in Windsor-Essex.
Acute Care Alberta has extended its contract for another year with a private surgical facility at the centre of probes into health procurement and contracting.