COLUMBUS, Ohio — Lauren Ramsey knows all too well how to roll with the punches. While most of us are taking the pandemic one step at a time, she’s gliding right through, thanks to her skates.
Ramsey started roller derby “about two to two and a half years ago. I wanted to make more friends, get out of my anxious zone and learn how to skate and roller derby taught me all those things.”
Ramsey goes by Chic’N Scratch on the rink.
“It’s because I own chickens and so they were my main inspiration,” she said.
Ramsey said the sport is tough but she’s learned a lot — “The blood and the spit and the tears, it’s all real.”
However, the COVID-19 pandemic has pulled the brakes on Ramsey’s roller derby team. Now, she said she spends three to four hours per day at skate parks.
When she’s not on skates, her day job is working with stroke patient data.
“So anybody that comes in as a stroke patient at Mount Carmel, I track the data of their stay,” she explained.
And although the last year and a half has changed where she skates, Ramsey said park skating is the perfect way to practice until roller derby fully resumes.
“We’re trying to pick things back up. A lot of teams are just now starting to pick back up and do things but we’re still trying to have a discussion with our team to make sure we all feel comfortable skating together safely and trying to mandate certain rules to keep us six feet apart and so we’re still working on that right now,” said Ramsey.
