Yvette Ipsaralexi, a.k.a. Stoli Von Stingray, is a librarian by day and a roller derby athlete by night. Ms. Ipsaralexi - or Stoli, as her teammates on the Riot Girls call her, after the vodka Stolichnaya - relishes the contrast between the two parts of her life. 'My day job as a librarian, I get to help people. ... [But]as a derby girl, I get to be, like, aggro. I get to skate really fast, hit people and get hit and fall all over the place.' Ms. Ipsaralexi, whose team is part of the Terminal City Roller Girls league, has been working hard for the past year and a half to improve her skills, and says derby's not all fishnet stockings and short skirts. 'We practise about two, three times a week, which is hard skating.' There are also drills and strategy, which include 'hitting people, learning how to take hits, how to fall and not get too injured.'
"We train really hard ... which maybe a lot of people don't know."
Yvette Ipsaralexi,
librarian and roller derby athlete
In her own words
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