Harpies Roller Derby Milano

Team Harpies Roller Derby Milano was born at the beginning of 2012 after a lot of efforts and meetings. From the very beginning adheres to the typical philosophy of roller derby “by the skaters for the skaters”, involving more athletes every year. The Harpies participated in a lot of trainings and boot camps abroad in order to let this sport develop in Milan and in the rest of Italy as well.

In May 2014 Harpies disputed their first bout and they have not stopped since then: during the season, which stops only in August, the team plays a bout per month. In 2014 a commission of European athletes had selected 7 Harpies in order to set up the first Italian national team which took part in the World Cup in December 2014 in Dallas, Texas. In July 2015 Harpies Roller Derby Milano was the first Italian team admitted in the Apprentice Program and currently there are 20 athletes who are training for facing important games with European teams.

Skate Im Ring – SKIR, the first Italian national tournament (organized by Bolzano’s team, Alp’n Rockets Roller Derby) was an important goal both for the Italian Roller Derby and for Harpies, who managed to win the first place. In November 2015, Harpies organized and participated in DDT Daga Denter Tournament -Roll Line Cup, the first international tournament in Italy. This year 10 Harpies have been admitted to the second women Team Italy, which took part in the European championship in September 2016.

In September 2016 Harpies’ Team got the Full Member’s title, reaching not only a very important team goal but also and maybe most important of all, a springboard for our own sport career and for all the Italian teams. The data above are very important goals reached by the team and by all the athletes, but the fundamental thing which we could never give up to, is the satisfaction of realizing that we do work well when we work together. Who does not understand the sentence “the most important thing is not winning but taking part” is because it has never played roller derby and never took part in a team’s life; because when your heart and your mind are on the track with your teammates’ hearts and minds, what you create is magical and goes beyond winning or losing. And all the sweat and tears of the world are not enough to explain what you feel for a teammate and for your team while you are on the track; because the whole world and your entire life shrink to an oval track, inhabited only by teammates and competitors, by a symphony of whistles of referees, and screams from the bench, and the shout “five seconds” makes you feel at home and lets you think that you are exactly where you are supposed to be. For us, being Harpies means home, family, past, present and future. That is why we are all happy and proud when we scream our motto “Arpie, tempesta, ira funesta!”, because to us, this is not only a game.