Wonder Woman of the Week: Bonnie Thunders
- Feb 9, 2022
- 2 min read
One of the most intense amateur sports for women in the world today is the sport of roller derby which pits teams of roller skaters in an endurance race around an indoor track where contact is not only allowed, but encouraged. In one of the few sports organized, designed, and consisted of almost entirely women; roller derby quickly became a symbol of Fourth Wave Feminism in its resurgence era of the early 2000's. Across the globe, derby clubs opened in over one hundred countries within a matter of years; but top ten lists of the greatest athletes in the sport consistently display one name- this week's Wonder Woman of the Week. Bonnie Thunders was born Nicole Williams in Ohio in 1983, but grew up in New York where she was a varsity soccer player in her youth. In college, Williams competed in both soccer and synchronized skating at Syracuse University.
When Nicole Williams moved to New York City, she traded in her ice skates for roller skates to try out for a roller derby team in the city. Not only did she make the team, but she became rookie of the year. By 2008, Williams- who took on the derby name Bonnie Thunder- worked her way up to her team's Division 1 squad and led them to a national championship title where she won the Most Valuable Player award. While simultaneously working as a conservationist, Bonnie Thunders also opened a skate shop in New York City and continued to compete. In 2016, Williams moved to Oregon where she joined the increasingly famous Rose City Rollers team as well as Team USA for international tournaments.
What makes roller derby such a critical sport for the modern era is that most women's sports have men managing them and organizing them for the purpose of creating s stage on which women perform for male audiences. Roller derby flips that on its head by having women organize, oversee, and compete in a sport in which they turn the attention on men by satirizing women's sport as a form of sexualization of women athletes to create a sport in which women can break gender norms, have agency over their sexualization, and create a platform to inspire new generations of women athletes. Bonnie Thunders and women like her in the sport not only compete, but organize, strategize, and and mobilize joint efforts to use sport to create a safe (well, except for the bruises and scars) space for women and girls and advance the cause for women's rights on the court and beyond.
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