Fifteen Years Of Injury Insurance Claims Among Female Roller Derby Athletes

Engagement in adult recreational sports has been widely recognized for its positive health outcomes. Roller derby is a high-intensity collision sport predominantly played recreationally by adult women. However, a notable lack of longitudinal research on female athletes participating in collision sports limits our understanding of their injury risks. PURPOSE: This study aimed to characterize clinical incidence of injuries from 15-years of national injury epidemiological data by year, region in the US, and total loss pay via insurance claims in the US. METHODS: Data were collected retrospectively from insurance claim data over a 15-year period (2008-2024) through the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA). Athletes who participate on a WFTDA team are automatically enrolled in the association’s insurance coverage within the US. Roster information, including total participants, was gathered from WFTDA teams. We computed the clinical incidence by overall injuries and year of injury. We also report descriptive statistics (median, interquartile range[IQR]) for loss pay and geographic location of injury claims (frequency, percent). RESULTS: Across 15 years of roller derby participation, a total of 1,304 insurance claims were filed among 233,301 athletes, yielding a clinical incidence of 5.5 claims per 1,000 athletes (95% CI: 5.3-5.9). The highest clinical incidence (13.1 per 1,000 athletes; 95% CI: 11.3-15.1) occurred in 2023, while the lowest occurred in 2009 (1.5 per 1,000 athletes; 95% CI: 0.6-3.1). The highest percent of injury claims were from the Great Lakes (n = 360/1,304; 27.7%), Rocky Mountain (n = 197/1,304, 15.1%), and Northwest (n = 195/1,304, 15.0%) regions. The total loss pay was $206,088.70, with a median loss pay of $216.50 (IQR: $0.00-$2,306.24). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that roller derby athletes have experienced a gradual increase in injury incidence over time, coinciding with the rise in popularity of the sport. This observation was most prominent in the Great Lakes region. These findings highlight an opportunity to improve onsite medical care and injury prevention strategies in Roller Derby, thereby better supporting athlete participation and reducing the financial and clinical burden of injuries.