Elisa Galvagno: ‘I am retiring, I no longer have satisfaction in motocross’
15/11/2023
Lisa Cavalli
Elisa Galvagno is a young Italian motocross rider. She started practising the sport at the age of seven, following the passion of her father and brother. She won three Italian under-17 titles in 2017, 2018 and 2019, and finished second overall in the Italian championship in 2019 and 2022. She also participated in the women’s world championship, where she achieved good results.
Some of you may have also seen Elisa in the video for ‘L’allegria’, a song written by Jovanotti and sung by Gianni Morandi, filmed at Valentino Rossi’s ranch. Although Elisa’s dream is to become world champion, a few days ago she announced her retirement from motocross.
It is certainly another serious loss for Italian women’s motocross after the departure of Giorgia Blasigh. I also wanted to have a chat with Elisa to understand why this decision was taken.
“Unfortunately this is the case. It seemed that women’s motocross was growing, but after these three retirements (Galvagno, Blasigh and van der Ven) it’s dropping a bit. This year I only raced at Riola and Albettone. Not because of injuries but I was coming back from a pretty dark period in my career, actually already since the last race of the Italian last year. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I couldn’t take it any more. I no longer had that satisfaction of racing and riding to achieve a goal. I would like to repeat the same words that Giorgia (Blasigh) said in her interview.
In the end it is like this. You give a lot but have no return. Not only financially but also in terms of relationships with people. Even I haven’t received any calls from the Federation, from anyone. It’s really bad. Apart from a few comments I was happy to read under my post, nothing. No one asked me why I made this decision, not even the sponsors.”
Do you think there is a setback in women’s motorcycling, a greater difficulty in investing in women, especially here in Italy?
“Last year it seemed as if the teams were starting to look a bit longer for us women too, but since this year I have seen a worsening of the situation. Everything has changed towards us.
To be honest, we women have never had much consideration, it’s ugly to say but that’s how it is. I hope I’m wrong, but at this rate the situation will always get worse. I hope not, because motocross is a beautiful sport, even for women.
In the end many women limit themselves to the Italian championship but we know that, apart from the title that may get you noticed by some small sponsors, it leads to nothing. At the world championship it’s a whole different thing and it’s very hard. I understand why Nancy stopped. The level has risen so much, but beyond that it’s economically tough. If you want to be among the top in the world you have to do it as a job. Then there are exceptional cases like Larissa Papenmeier who manages to work and compete among the top, but that is very rare.
It always comes back to the initial concept: when you give a lot and you see that you can’t get a satisfactory economic return to be able to train and get to a high level, you have to think about whether that is your path.”
Having given up the motocross dream, do you already know what you will do in the future?
“I already have clear ideas. I am studying communication sciences to become a sports journalist!”
Photos courtesy of Elisa Galvagno
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