Ashley Fiolek

Ashley Fiolek

My hero is a deaf female Motocross racer by the name of Ashley Fiolek. She was born deaf, her parents didn't realize she was deaf until she was three years old. While growing up she tried dancing and was always shy about things but when she got on a dirtbike she had a smile on her face and would come out more. She wanted to step up and go professional. Being deaf was not an excuse, and that never kept her or her parents from stopping the determination to get her to accomplish her dream of being a WMX champion. While growing up she would ride and learn the vibrations from the bike and that is how she would know when to shift. In the year of 2008 she started her first Pro motocross season. With such great success she won her very first WMX championship. Soon after she became the first deaf woman motocross rider to win a title and also the first female to be part of the Honda Red Bull racing team.

She continued to race getting more wins part way through the season she crashed and fractured her wrist, but that won't slow her down she still went out to clinch yet another championship for the season of 2009. She took her racing to the X Games and won gold for the women's pro racing event, but she didn't get the 2010 motocross championship. She did more small events and learned more from other racers and took that into her 2011 season with that her contract came to an end with Honda, so they still wanted her and she chose to continue to race for the 2011 Red Bull Honda Racing team. With more races she went to she yet again won another WMX Championship. With three titles she was ready to do another year of racing, but she chose that 2012 would be her last year for racing in the WMX Pro series.

Ashley Fiolek

With the 2012 season kicking off she has tough competitors by keeping the championship points in the battle. By the end of the season Ashley finished the 2012 season 3 Points ahead and clinched the WMX title one last time. With four championships in her five years of racing she will take her skills and apply it to something different and focus on other sports. She said on her web page that she may try and race in endurocross and maybe even try to race in the men's motocross class.