WORLD CHAMPION COURTNEY 'I WANT TO INSPIRE KIWI GIRLS'

The gutsy motocross star has taken out the top prize four times!

- Debbie Harrison

When Courtney Duncan stood on the podium in Turkey to accept her trophy as 2023’s Women’s Motocross World Champion – her fourth time claiming the title – her success came as no surprise to those who knew her as a little blonde-headed girl who spent her weekends hooning around the tracks of Waitaki.

For the past seven years, the 27-year-old Kiwi has been quietly achieving international success in motocross, a career that has taken her around the globe. This year’s World Champ series alone saw her competing in Italy, Spain, Switzerland, France, the Netherlands and Turkey, where she clinched the world title.

It’s a long way from home in Palmerston, 40 minutes out of Dunedin, but it’s a dream come true for Courtney, who has wanted this life since she first realised that being a professional motocross rider could be a viable career.

“I vividly remember sitting on the couch and watching the World Champs on TV,” she tells Woman's Day. “As soon as I saw the women racing, I said to my parents, ‘It’s going to be me. I’m going to do that.’ I was about 12 and that was it.”

Her love affair with riding started when she was seven years old and got her first motorbike. She was instantly hooked. She’d spend hours and hours roaring around the front paddock of the family home, stopping only when she ran out of gas or it got too dark to see beyond the handlebars.