FIM countries celebrate Women's Day

International Women's Day joined together the FIM countries to celebrate the women in motorcycling.

On International Women´s Day many countries, riders, teams and manufacturers have joined the campaign “I support Women in Motorcycling” that was created by the FIM Women in Motorcycling Commission.

“I am overwhelmed by the support our campaign has received all over the world. It has been great to see that for example Qatar Superbike Championship riders, BMW Motorrad, Bike Promotion and Assen MOTUL FIM Ice Speedway Gladiators World Championship plus so many riders throughout the world have been so eager to show women their support”, says commission director Nita Korhonen.

Susanne Hüttinger from Austria is a member of the Commission and was the referee at the meeting in Assen. She said: “It was a great success; we had a lot of support from the riders on the special day and all of them were riding with the CFM sticker on their race jacket to show their respect. The acceptance of being a female referee has improved a lot over the last few years and today in Assen, there were a lot a women working in different positions which is good sign for the future I think.”
International Women´s Day also brought together the FIM`s and FIA´s Women´s Commissions that organized a motorsport event for women in Finland. Both commissions find it extremely important to get more women into the motorsport. The number of women riders and officials has increased during the years and it has become more natural that women are part of the motorsport world.

“Of course there is still a lot of work to do in order to get more females into the motorcycling but I don´t want to give the impression that women are anything special here. We are riders and officials just like men. We don´t want special treatment, we should be just natural part of motorsport”, Korhonen adds.

Today there are already many women only championship series but FIM Women´s Commission wants to see women competing also with men. One of the great examples is Moto3 rider Ana Carrasco who later this week received a prize of the Madrid Community with other six women, who also struggle every day for the equality.

“I am very glad to have received this distinction as a 17-year old. This is an honour for me being an example for all the women that are fighting for gender equality in the world of motorcycling”.
Carrasco is ready to fight against the men during the new Moto3 season that starts in three weeks.
“For me, being a Moto3 rider has made all my dreams come true. It is rewarding after all work done during many years. However, being one of the selected riders in Moto3 is not easy. For a woman, there are lots of difficulties on the way. Anyway, I am strong thanks to all the people that are supporting me and thanks to my new team RBA Racing Team with which I know that soon we will be ready to fight to be the World Champions”.

The support of the FIM on International Women’s Day will have drawn the attention of motorcyclists in all disciplines of motorcycle sport and in non-sporting activities to the aims and achievements of women. Although the journey is not over, equality in motorcycling has today moved one step closer.