Illness Prevents Duncan From Contesting First Round Of 2025 World Women’s Motocross Championship

Four-time FIM World WMX Women’s Motocross Champion Courtney Duncan will not be contesting the first round of the 2025 championship in Sardinia this week due to illness.

The hugely successful Dunedin-based racer woke up around eight weeks ago with severe chest pains and was rushed to hospital. After several weeks she was diagnosed with pericarditis, which is swelling and irritation of the thin, saclike tissue surrounding her heart.

This was an understandably crushing blow to 29-year-old Duncan, who was full tilt into her training for the upcoming motocross season.

“The past eight weeks has been tough. I was initially unable to do anything physically. Slowly over the past few weeks, I’ve been trying to do a little bit of low intensity but am struggling to get through that at the moment. You realise how important your health is, that’s for sure,” Duncan says.

The good news is that there is no long term or permanent damage done to her heart.

“There’s nothing to say that it's not curable and I will get back to 100 per cent. The downfall is we don’t know how long that’s going to take. It’s all dependent on different people. It can take longer for some and shorter for others.”

No stranger to injury recovery over her many years of motocross racing, Duncan says this set back is frustratingly different.

“It’s the opposite of having an injury where you work harder and you make sure you come back stronger and you are ready to go. This one is unpredictable and has the opposite effect, you have to do less to get better. The more you do, the worse the symptoms get and it prolongs the recovery, which we have found out over the last few weeks.”

Duncan says after discussions with the medical team and her European race team, they have decided it's safest and best for her to withdraw from the first round of the world championship and potentially the first part of the season.

“It’s pretty tough to accept. We are even struggling to get through a 30-minute session at the moment with low resistance. Reality shows that I wouldn’t even be able to get there.”

As always, it's the people in her corner that will get her through this tough time.

“I want to give a huge shout out to my friends, family, High Performance Sport New Zealand, the medical team and all my doctors for helping me get through these past six to eight weeks. My team, my sponsors, DRT Kawasaki, Fox Racing and Monster Energy for being understanding through these times and allowing me to be patient with this illness. It’s always nice to know they care about you as a person, not just a racer.”

Duncan also thanked her fans for their support and assured them she’s doing everything she can to recover as safely as possible and get back to doing what she does best – dominating motocross tracks around the world.

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