NOS Sport•
What Lotte van Drunen has put down this season is unprecedented. Her second world title in the women’s motocross at an age when nobody had ever done that. “It is so special that it has never happened before,” says the 18-year-old himself.
The South Hollandse was the youngest world champion ever in the WMX last year and 31 days, which was founded twenty years ago. She took over the record from the Australian Katherine Prumm, who was a year older in 2006 when she celebrated the world title.
Van Drunen extended her title last week. “I am 18 years old and I already have two. I am really proud of that.”
A life full of motocross
Van Drunen has done nothing but cross from an early age. At the age of nine she became Dutch champion, among the boys. Her exceptional talent was already taking place there.
“I think I’m a little sport addict,” laughs Van Drunen. “It is also difficult to take a rest. I really like the cross myself, and feeling training internships abroad just feel as a vacation. We train every day, but it is also fun with family and friends there.”
That ‘holiday feeling’ is partly the power of Van Drunen. She travels all year round with her family in the camper; Train, drive, tinker together. “As a family, we are actually busy with that 24/7,” she says. “Usually the cross jobs are an hour drive, and then everything has to be cleaned again by my father. It is really a family sport.”
The whole family goes for Van Drunen’s success
What makes it extra impressive in the past season is that Van Drunen put down her performance shortly after a fracture. Last November she broke her ankle in several places during a training during a training. “The first thing the doctor said was: you probably won’t get that first game of the season.”
The new Motocross season would start in Italy in the weekend of 5 and 6 April. She only had four months for the recovery of the fracture and getting fit.
“We went to so many doctors at the time, did so many therapies that we have cut off a month of the recovery process. Nobody expected that. That I achieved that first game, and also won him, was really very special.”
Yet her healing process did not go completely according to plan. A piece of bone has grown incorrectly, and that is why an operation is waiting for her soon. “I said to myself: that pain during the competitions should just not be there. It is not nice to wake up every morning and to feel that pain with every step. It must be good for next year, because it should not affect my performance.”
Between the men
The hunger of the two -time world champion is by no means satisfied. She wants to write history in the Motocross. Her goals extend beyond the women’s field.
“I want a lot more. My dream is to ride among the men. A woman who rides against men, you hardly ever see that.” The seed for that, she says, was laid at the age of nine and she wants to experience that feeling again.
It is only given a few women in this traditionally dominated sport. The Italian Stefy Bau was in 2005 the first woman to train in a men’s match in the MX2 class. Four years later, Mariana Balbi rode in the highest men’s class, then the MX1.
Van Drunen occasionally participates in the MX2. In that class men up to 23 years old drive a 250cc engine, but for women there is no age limit. In August she fell just outside the points in Lommel, Belgium.
An advantage of the men’s competition is that there are many more competitions. In 2025 there were only six WMX matches, in the MXGP there were twenty. “The more, the better,” laughs Van Drunen.
How long does she give herself to measure herself with the men? Determined: “I hope that I will go a long way in my twenties.”
