Julie Brandt Glass (born 23 February 1979), known as Atomatrix, is a former

roller derby Roller derby is a roller skating contact sport played on an oval track by two teams of five skaters. It is played by approximately 1,250 amateur leaguesA Roller Derby league is synonymous with an individual club or team in other team sports, as ...

skater, and a former competitive

speed skater Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors racing, race each other in travelling a certain distance on Ice skate, skates. Types of speed skating are long-track speed skating, short-track speed skating, and marath ...

Inline skating

Born in

Grand Rapids, Michigan Grand Rapids is the largest city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, United States. With a population of 198,917 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 200,117 in 2024, Grand Rapids is the List of municipalities ...

as Julie Brandt, she took up

inline speed skating Roller speed skating is the roller sport of racing on inline skates. The sport may also be called ''inline racing'' or ''speed skating'' by participants. Although it primarily evolved from racing on traditional roller skates, the sport is simila ...

, and won two gold medals at the U.S. Olympic Festival in 1995. She was overall sprint champion at the U.S. nationals that year, and again in 1998, also winning the Downer's Grove Championship in 1996 and 1998, and taking a gold medal at the World Cup in 1997. She took a break from skating during which she married Doug Glass, a fellow speed skater, then returned to win a silver medal at the

1999 Pan American Games The 1999 Pan American Games, officially the XIII Pan American Games () or the 13th Pan American Games and commonly known as Winnipeg 1999, were a major international multi-sport event that was held from July 23 to August 8, 1999, in Winnipeg, Ma ...

. She also competed at the

X Games The X Games are a series of action sports events founded by ESPN Inc. and aired on ESPN networks and ABC. In late 2022, ESPN sold the long-running property to MSP Sports Capital, a private equity firm co-founded by Jahm Najafi and Jeff Mo ...

, taking gold in the women's downhill inline skating at the 1998 event, won gold at the

2003 Pan American Games The 2003 Pan American Games, officially the XIV Pan American Games () and commonly known as Santo Domingo 2003, were held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, from August 1 to 17, 2003. The successful bid for the Games was made in the mid-1990 ...

, and at the 2003 Berlin Roller Marathon. Glass took another break from skating in 2002, during which time she and her husband ran a

roller rink A roller rink is a hard surface usually consisting of hardwood or concrete, used for roller skating or inline skating. This includes roller hockey, speed skating, roller derby, and individual recreational skating. Roller rinks can be located in ...

and drive-through coffee shop in

Lebanon, Oregon Lebanon ( ) is a city in Linn County, Oregon, Linn County, Oregon, United States. Lebanon is located in northwest Oregon, southeast of Salem, Oregon, Salem. The population was 19,690 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Lebanon sits be ...

. After watching the

2002 Winter Olympics The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002 (; Gosiute dialect, Gosiute Shoshoni: ''Tit'-so-pi 2002''; ; Shoshoni language, Shoshoni: ''Soónkahni 2002''), were an international wi ...

, she began training as an ice

, quickly gaining a place on the U.S. team, training in

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

and entering some World Cup events, despite her lack of experience in the sport. However, she decided that she lacked the motivation to excel in the discipline, and returned to inline skating.

Roller derby

Glass subsequently moved to

Olympia, Washington Olympia is the capital city of the U.S. state of Washington. It had a population of 55,605 at the 2020 census, making it the state of Washington's 23rd-most populous city. Olympia is the county seat of Thurston County, and the central city ...

, working with her husband on their Atom Wheels business, and gave birth to twins in 2007. The following year, she attended the

WFTDA Championships The International Women's Flat Track Derby Association Championships ("WFTDA Championships" or "Champs" for short) are the leading competition for roller derby leagues. The Championships are organized by the Women's Flat Track Derby Associatio ...

of roller derby, and decided to take up the sport, under the

derby name A derby name, roller derby name or skater name is a nickname used by a skater while playing or officiating roller derby. Derby names can be seen as an opportunity to adopt an alternative on-track persona. Many derby names are puns, and in some ...

"Atomatrix". She joined the local

Oly Rollers The Oly Rollers are a women's flat-track roller derby league based in Olympia, Washington. Founded in February 2006, the Oly Rollers have won both the WFTDA Championship and the USARS National Championship. The Oly Rollers are a member of the W ...

league, and was a key member of their team which won the Championships in 2009.September 2011 Featured Skater: Atomatrix
",

Women's Flat Track Derby Association The Women's Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) is the international governing body for the sport of women's flat track roller derby. It sets the international standards for rankings, rules, and competition in the sport, and provides guidance and ...

, 8 September 2011 As Atomatrix, she was selected for

Team USA The United States national team or Team USA may refer to any of a number of sports team representing the United States in international competitions. Olympic teams Additionally, these teams may compete in other international competitions such as ...

at the

2011 Roller Derby World Cup The 2011 Roller Derby World Cup was an international women's roller derby tournament organized by ''Blood & Thunder'' magazine. Teams of amateur skaters from around the world were fielded to compete for their respective nations. The inaugural 20 ...

. Glass moved to

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

and skated with

Arizona Roller Derby Arizona Roller Derby is Arizona's first all female roller derby league. It was founded in 2003 making it one of the oldest resurgence roller derby leagues in America. Arizona Roller Derby, abbreviated as AZRD, is one of the founding members of th ...

's Tent City Terrors team.Atomatrix
", Atom Wheels On August 21, 2012, it was announced that she would be leaving AZRD to return to the Oly Rollers. The transfer caused much debate, since Atomatrix was still living in Arizona while skating for the Oly Rollers. 2013 found Glass back on her inlines and competed at the World Championships in Oostende, Belgium after 8 years off. A top 8 finish in the 500 meter on the road and top American finisher in the Marathon. By 2014 Glass was back skating on Team USA and the Arizona Tent City Terrors.

Personal life

Glass' brother, David Brandt, has played in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

. Glass has been a proud representative of international multi-level marketing (MLM) company

Arbonne Arbonne (; ) is a Communes of France, commune in French Basque Country, a region of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques Departments of France, department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of southwestern France. Geography Arbonne is located some 6 km ...

since December 2019. Glass and her husband are co-owners of Mota Skates, LLC, a rebranding of their prior business enterprise, Atom Gear, that went bankrupt in 2015. In June 2020, Glass and Mota Skates came under fire for posting racially inflammatory graphics across multiple social media platforms. Initially, Glass and her husband responded to the widespread accusations of racism with an apology, writing: However, the apology was largely rejected as disingenuous by the skate community at large, serving only to draw more criticism for the Glasses and their brand. The Women's Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) removed Mota Skates as a vendor from all future events, stating " feel that our values are no longer aligned." During the initial social media backlash, several of Mota's sponsored skaters, including Violet Knockout of

Gotham Girls Roller Derby Gotham Roller Derby is a flat track roller derby league based in New York City, New York. Founded in late 2003, Gotham is the first flat track roller derby league in the metropolitan New York area and a founding member league of the sport's gover ...

, swiftly disassociated themselves from the brand, while skate shops across the globe vowed to discontinue sales of Mota products. Taking again to social media, the Glasses authored another post, this time with no semblance of apologetic tone. A far cry from the prior month's voiced support for

Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a Decentralization, decentralized political and social movement that aims to highlight racism, discrimination and Racial inequality in the United States, racial inequality experienced by black people, and to pro ...

, the co-owner couple now claimed the Black Lives Matter movement was actually a "terrorist funded corrupt ic hateful & racist organization" that was "funded by

Soros George Soros (born György Schwartz; August 12, 1930) is an American investor and philanthropist. , he has a net worth of US$7.2 billion, Note that this site is updated daily. having donated more than $32 billion to the Open Society Foundatio ...

," while lambasting anyone who vocalized criticism of the brand as being racist themselves, writing in part:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Glass, Julie 1979 births American female speed skaters American roller skaters Inline speed skaters Living people Roller derby skaters Sportspeople from Grand Rapids, Michigan X Games competitors Competitors at the 1999 Pan American Games Roller speed skaters at the 2003 Pan American Games Medalists at the 2003 Pan American Games Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States in roller sports Pan American Games bronze medalists for the United States in roller sports 20th-century American sportswomen 21st-century American sportswomen