Roller derby player 'proud' of World Cup appearance

It was the first Roller Derby World Cup appearance for Li Caswell-Sou, as well as the first time her nation, Team Chinese Nations, took part

A roller derby player has said it has been "really meaningful" to showcase her skills while "proudly" representing her heritage at the World Cup event.

Li Caswell-Sou was one of the Oxford Roller Derby players at the Roller Derby World Cup in Innsbruck, Austria, from 3 to 6 July.

The event was the biggest for the sport yet, with 48 teams, 80 games and more than 1200 skaters taking part.

Ms Caswell-Sou, who is British-born Chinese, competed for Team Chinese Nations and was able to meet other players from the Chinese diaspora from all over the world.

Only six members of Team Chinese Nations met and practiced together ahead of the game, thanks to a session organised by Oxford Roller Derby

It was her first time appearing in the Roller Derby World Cup, as well as her Team Chinese Nations' debut.

"I grew up in the UK, but we had people who were [from] places like North America, New Zealand, Australia."

She said they had been talking via Discord to plan their strategies and make arrangements.

Six of the skaters are based in the UK and managed to meet and get to know each other thanks to the Oxford team who were able to host a training session for them.

"To be in a team just with other people of the Chinese diaspora was really meaningful for me because roller derby is such a supportive community in terms of representation," Ms Caswell-Sou said.

"It's been an incredible honour and opportunity to showcase my skills in the sport while proudly representing my British-born Chinese heritage on a global platform."

The team won one game and the Spirit Award which is given to the team that best embodies the spirit of the sport

Ms Caswell-Sou said they had had no expectations.

"We were ranked pretty much at the bottom because they had no stats to go by at all.

"But what was really good was we won one game, so we beat South Africa."

She also spoke of their "exciting" match against West Indies and the "incredible" game against the Fuego Latino team.

Her team finished 37th in the competition.

"Which I think is really good going for a team who only had one hour of training together the day before it all kicked off," she said.

The team also won the Spirit Award for the entire tournament "in bringing our team's energy, enthusiasm and amazing sense of fun to the track".

Li Caswell-Sou said it was "an incredible honour and opportunity" to showcase her skills and "proudly" represent her heritage on a global platform

Ms Caswell-Sou said many people had started to join the team after the event, which she said was "really nice to see".

"It says something that in our team this time around we weren't able to have any skaters actually from say China or Hong Kong or Macau because it's not quite as big a thing," she said.

"But what we really hope is by having participated in the World Cup we're representing our culture and we're able to make people more aware of the sport as well."