FIM Women’s Speedway Gold Trophy (WSGT) champion Celina Liebmann defends her title this coming Saturday (12 July) at the Stadion Milenium in Donji Kraljevec, Croatia, but the twenty-three-year-old German star is suffering with an ongoing hip problem and knows she faces a huge challenge.
“This year I don’t have as much pressure as last year because I’m injured,” she explained. “I haven’t had a race for two or three months, but I will try to race. I had a practice last week and I couldn’t even ride two laps so there is not so much pressure – I just want to try and finish four laps.”
A member of the FIM Women’s Speedway Academy since its first edition in 2022, Liebmann has packed a huge amount of racing into a relatively short space of time and this considerable experience helped make her a clear pre-race favourite heading into last season’s first-ever WSGT.
This, naturally, put additional pressure on her to perform – something all champions must deal with – and she rose to the occasion, sweeping all four of her Heat races at Teterow in Germany which earned her the WSGT title after the Grand Final was red-flagged following a first-corner crash.
“It was obviously amazing to win, but to be honest it was one of the worst races ever for me because I had so much pressure because everyone expected me to win. So, I was really nervous, and it was a shame we couldn’t race the Grand Final after the crash between Anika [Loftus] and Nynke [Sijbesma]. I’m hoping it will be a normal Grand Final this year.”
Liebmann has grown up in a racing family. Her father competed in Ice Speedway and her mother rode Motocross so it was inevitable that she also raced motorcycles.
“I love racing and I was born for it. It was always Speedway that I loved. I tried Motocross, Ice Speedway and Flat Track, but just for fun and never with serious intentions. My focus has always been on Speedway.”
This passion has carried Liebmann to several important milestones. The first female to race an FIM Speedway Under 21 World Championship (SGP2) event and the first female to sign for British and Polish clubs, last season’s WSGT cemented her reputation as a trail-blazing role model for diversity and gender equality, although she quickly discovered that becoming the first-ever WSGT winner did not come without issues.
“Every race after the WSGT, because I was the champion it felt like everyone wanted to be in front of me. Anyone else it didn’t matter, they just wanted to be in front of me.”
After racing in England last season, Liebmann turned down offers to race in Argentina and Australia over the winter to give her body time to recover, but an issue with a hip muscle that stops her lifting her left leg – an essential movement in Speedway – has sidelined her for much of 2025.
However, her steely determination means she is not going to surrender her position as Speedway’s number one woman racer without a fight.
“Of course I want to defend my title, but it will be my first race after so long off the bike so it will not be easy.”
The action from Donji Kraljevec is scheduled to get under way at 15:30 local time. For more information click here.