Margaret's Open Road

MARGARET WAGNER

Roller Derby Team Captain

LEADER INFO:

INTERESTS:

Action Sports

THEMES DISCUSSED:

Fear Fulfillment Goals Perseverance Courage Opportunity Pressure Choices Family

TAGS:

drop out, falling, health care, resourceful, roller derby, roller skating, skills, time

BIOGRAPHY:

Wearing cheap gear and rental skates, Margaret Wagner found the courage to walk through the doors of a roller rink one day in 2007. She was in shock of what she saw: Girls wearing armor (helmets, knee pads, and mouth guards), skating aggressively in packs, pushing and shoving one another in order to get ahead. Her instincts told her to go home, but the little voice inside her told her to stay. Roller derby is an aggressive contact sport that allows athletes to push, shove, and hit members of the opposing team causing them to fall, and sometimes, trip over other members. At first, Margaret was scared—her first times out in the rink she clutched to the rink's wall, even when no one was trying to hit her. But she stuck with it. She trained for a few months and soon became an official roller derby girl at Dominion Derby Girls, coined with the nickname "Thunderlips." Margaret is now known out on the rink as having a big mouth and being able to play mostly any position in the sport.