It’s 2019 and women are smashing stereotypes left, right and centre. More and more women are taking up non-traditional roles and pursuing careers hitherto reserved for men. They are joining the armed forces, flying fighter jets, taking part in motorsports and making the country proud.
Just like 23-year-old Aishwarya Pissay, a rally racer from Bangalore who won International Motorcycling Federation’s FIM World Cup in Hungary. She is the first Indian to bag a world title in motorsports.
She placed first in Dubai (first leg), third in Portugal, fifth in Spain and fourth in Hungary (last leg) to finish with 65 points.
Aishwarya Pissay of TVS clinches the Fim Baja World Cup 2019 Women's Category. She finished 4th in the Hungary Round which concluded today. #Fmsci congratulates India's first #FIM World Cup champion. pic.twitter.com/ftPndXOApv
— FMSCI (@fmsci) August 12, 2019
In an interview with The Times Of India, the biker revealed how it all started by saying,
“I started going on weekend rides with my friends and that is where my love for biking began. Then in 2015, I began training at the Apex Racing Academy in Coimbatore and realised I had the skill set to get into professional racing and biking.”
Her journey is one of determination as she pushed through even after sustaining severe injuries to her collarbone in 2017 and a terrible crash in 2018. She added,
“When I suffered career-threatening injuries, it was a tough phase of my life. But I believed in myself and was determined to get back on the bike, which I did in nearly six months. So, winning the World Cup is huge for me. It’s an absolute honour to be the first athlete to bring home a world championship title and put India on the map of international motorsports.”
The talented and gritty rally racer has now set her sights on the upcoming Dakar Rally which is touted to be the most gruelling cross-country race in the world. We sincerely hope that this dream of hers comes true and she wins many more titles motivating more women to take up biking.