Panel discussion: “Roll with Pride: Gender and Sexual Diversity in Sports,” 24.6.25

Tue, June 24, 2025, 19:00
Location: Innsbruck City Library (Amraser Straße 2, A-6020 Innsbruck)

Panel: Corinna Schmechel (Gender Studies, University of Göttingen), Eva Baumgartner (fairplay Initiative, Vienna), and Élise Schwarzmann (player at Vienna Roller Derby)
Moderator: Linda Rausch (Institute for Sports Science, University of Innsbruck

From July 3 to 6, 2025, Innsbruck will host the first Roller Derby World Cup, the world's largest event in this sport. Roller derby is a full-contact sport on roller skates, primarily organized and practiced by FLINTA individuals, i.e., women* and lesbians, as well as inter, non-binary, trans*, and agender individuals. The sport therefore explicitly aims to create an inclusive space for people who often experience marginalization and discrimination in traditional competitive and recreational sports due to their gender and/or sexuality. In a panel discussion, three experts from the fields of gender studies, sports organization, and athletics will discuss how gender and sexual inclusion can be achieved in recreational sports and what opportunities queer/feminist sports spaces such as roller derby offer in this regard.

Panelists:

Dr. Corinna Schmechel (she/her) is an academic advisor for gender studies at Georg August University in Göttingen and conducts research on topics including gender constructions in sports and feminist and queer sports culture, e.g., in her dissertation “Auspowern und Empowern?” (Exhausting and Empowering?), which was published in 2022, and in a 2025 anthology contribution on the “question of performance” in feminist sports. She is also actively involved in feminist sports as a boxing trainer at Seitenwechsel e.V. Berlin, Europe's largest FLINTA* sports club, where she is also involved in organizing tournaments and discussion events. In addition, she regularly gives workshops and lectures on the topic as a speaker.

Eva Baumgartner (she/her) is responsible for press and public relations, digital learning, and the Erasmus+ project OUTdoor for INclusion at fairplay – the initiative for diversity and anti-discrimination. She is a trained health coach, was a roller derby player for over 10 years, and is currently a coach for Roller Derby Team Austria.

Élise Schwarzmann (no pronouns, she/her) studied philosophy, gender studies, and history. Élise plays for Vienna Roller Derby and is also part of Team Austria. In the derby community, Élise is better known to other players under the pseudonym “Steel.” True to the motto “there is no wrong way to be non-binary,” Élise is particularly committed to dispelling stereotypes about non-binary gender.

An event in cooperation with the Innsbruck City Library as part of the Feminist City Talks.