While she struggles to pinpoint exactly what it is that she loves, it’s somewhere in the experimental physics of the sport. The constant puzzling out of problems to make micro gains that will give an edge on race day. 

“The more work I put in the better I got, and it almost became addictive,” Duncan says. “I wanted to be the best at it, and I knew that I would need to work really hard. I would watch motocross DVDs every night. Although I didn’t understand, I was learning from it, I was looking for ways to be better.” 

This careful study of the minutiae that combine to produce total mastery is a common thread among those who achieve highly in sport. From big wave surf pioneer Laird Hamilton, to Formula One champion Max Verstappen, such athletes are constantly fine tuning their natural skills into something supernormal. 

Professor Ken Hodge from the University of Otago School of Physical Education, Sport and Exercise Science has worked as a mental skills trainer for many elite New Zealand athletes.  

He explains that mental skills are called that because they are skills. And in modern sports science, mental training is in the same realm of importance as fitness training and nutrition.  

“Even if you’re good at something, you still need to get better at it, and that’s one of the hallmarks of elite athletes,” Prof Hodge says. “They’re able to harness perfectionism to help motivate them to do all this extra training and work hard. Elite athletes aren’t necessarily selfish, but they’re certainly very self-focused.” 

IN ACADEMIA there’s an emerging area of study into what distinguishes super-elite athletes from elite athletes.  

A key UK study focuses on 16 serial winners at Olympic and World Championship events. By any metric Duncan meets the super-elite criteria; she’d score highly in many of the psychosocial features that define the cohort. 

Alongside ‘ruthlessness’, ‘obsessiveness’, and ‘a need to succeed’, is ‘a career turning point that led to enhanced motivation and focus’. 

Numerous events could support that narrative in Duncan’s journey. But she remembers watching the Motocross World Championships on TV when she was 12 as a pivotal moment.  

“We had some Kiwi icons at the time racing overseas,” Duncan remembers. “I was like, ‘you know what? That’s what I want to do.’ It’s what I’ve wanted to do since, and there hasn’t been anything that’s stood in my way.” 

From riding with friends on the backyard track at home, she’d made rapid gains in the sport. Already racing against boys at the age of seven, Duncan was soon travelling to motocross events around New Zealand with Turner - and winning.  

It was during this time that Josh Coppins first encountered the prodigy. The superb Motueka rider had been one of the Kiwis that Duncan had watched competing in the World Championship.  

Coppins saw her racing at an event in Nelson, and recalls that it was already clear that she had the goods. 

“Not so much from the speed, but more so from the attitude, the desire, and the want,” he says. “The speed was there, but the rest of the package was what made it evident.” 

That all translated into early success in New Zealand, and then in Australia and the United States. Duncan finished sixth overall when the World Junior Championships were held in Taupo in 2009, and won the 65-85cc girls title at the Ponca City Junior Motocross Nationals in the US during 2011. 

But even during her teens the injury toll had begun to mount, with long recovery periods after knee surgery.  

When she was 17, Duncan spent months in the United States, training at Colleen Millsaps’ facility in Georgia and winning races including the Hangtown Motocross Classic. She also suffered a serious concussion while racing in the Amateur National Motocross Championship in Tennessee. 

“Courtney is as tough as they come,” Millsaps noted at the time. “What makes Courtney dangerous as a competitor is her belief that she has no limitations.” 

MOTOCROSS IS an expensive sport; both Linda Duncan and Josh Coppins are all too aware of that.  

The financial outlay is just part of the sacrifice made by a young rider and their family. There’s the time spent away from home, the missed education, and the huge commitment that overshadows many other aspects of life. 

“Everything I did was to be the best at racing a dirt bike,” Duncan reflects. “I missed out on school proms, friends’ birthdays. I’ve never had a birthday party in terms of a 21st or anything. I’ve missed family weddings. But at the time they weren’t sacrifices because I was doing what I loved.” 

Around 2015 she joined the stable at Josh Coppins Racing, the team he’d established with Yamaha after retiring in 2013.  

With Coppins now coaching her and Yamaha’s support opening up doors, Duncan’s aspirations to race internationally were rapidly accelerated. While her technique and speed were already world-class, there were other things to be worked on. 

“There was already an abundance of speed, so it was just about making that count,” Coppins says. “And getting her to manage the expectations; she’s a super emotional rider, so trying to control those emotions in the good and the bad moments.”  

That guidance served Duncan well when she debuted on the world stage in Qatar during February 2016.  

Instead of being daunted by a field that included world champion Italian Kiara Fontanesi, she dominated to win both races by considerable margins. 

Her scorching arrival earned Duncan an ongoing spot with Yamaha in the WMX. 

“You might only get one opportunity in your life to give it a crack,” she says. “When it came I knew that this was my time to strike. I needed to go out and win, I needed to dominate to get a contract to go on further. It puts a lot of pressure on you; it’s not easy.” 

WITH FOUR gold medals, Ian Ferguson was for many years New Zealand’s most successful Olympian. 

Although he and fellow kayaker Paul McDonald enjoyed multiple triumphs at the Olympics and World Championships, their path to glory was tough. 

In a minority sport with little to no funding, they largely succeeded on their own wits. 

Prof. Hodge references multiple examples of athletes from New Zealand and Australia achieving highly despite similarly austere programmes. But while they have to fight every inch of the way, such measures ultimately make them tougher. 

“Some of the other athletes haven’t had to tough it out like the Ian Fergusons and Courtney Duncans,” Prof. Hodge says. “That toughing it out is one of the reasons they have these mental skills. The underlying mental toughness just for life contributes to your mental toughness on race day.” 

Duncan would certainly require a deep reservoir of resilience during her first years in the WMX. 

Over the three seasons from 2016 to 2018, she experienced a chaotic rollercoaster of ups and downs that nearly broke her. Along with wins and podium finishes, Duncan’s souvenirs included injury, disappointment, and frustration.  

During 2016 in Germany, a collision with a photographer on the track scuttled her chances. The following year a dodgy call from an official cost her dearly, while in 2018 a foot injury stole the title when she was leading the championship. 

“There were many times I would be in tears on the phone, saying ‘I don’t want to be here anymore’,” Duncan relates. “I was living on my own in Belgium and I was really lonely and homesick. There were some really tough years, but it kind of made me, me.” 

While her mum remembers those early calls home, she knew her daughter could handle pressure better than anyone. It was tough with her on the other side of the world, but always in Linda Duncan’s mind was the thought that “if anyone’s going to do it, she will. She’ll keep going until she does”. 

AFTER ALL the dark days, everything finally came together in the 2019 WMX. 

It took a change of manufacturer and a new team, but Duncan was utterly imperious as she rode towards her first world championship. 

Coppins says it was inevitable that big European teams would be interested, so it was no surprise when she switched to Kawasaki and joined the Dixon Racing Team. 

This fundamental change in her programme and the hard learnings from previous campaigns coalesced to make Duncan unstoppable.  

“Winning a world title in any discipline is not easy,” she says. “You’re going to have to figure it out and persevere until you understand and put the pieces of the puzzle together. When it clicks, it clicks.” 

Duncan won four out of the five rounds that she raced in 2019, finally being crowned world champion in an emotional race at Afyonkarahisar in Türkiye. 

That maiden championship will always remain the sweetest of her career, she reflects five years on. 

“To cross the line and finally get the monkey off my back was like ‘woah!’,” Duncan says. “The last 10 or 15 years prior, everything was like a build-up to achieve this one goal in life.” 

For many athletes, realising their dream is enough. Prof. Hodge compares it to a one-hit-wonder in music, where people reach the top and quickly disappear. 

There aren’t that many athletes who can keep winning, he says, because they can’t sustain the commitment that it took to get there the first time.  

But after a triumphant homecoming at Dunedin Airport in 2019, Duncan refocused and came back for more. 

In 2020 and 2021 she backed up that first championship with two more, and while injury subdued her in 2022, last year brought a fourth world championship. As the rider reiterates, it gets tougher every year, and she has to keep working hard to keep winning. 

“I hate losing more than I love winning,” Duncan says. “I’ve always been like that. I’m not a sore loser, I’m humble in defeat. But at the same time I just don’t enjoy it. The majority of the time I feel like I’m good enough to win and when I don’t it’s frustrating.” 

ARCH RIVAL Kiara Fontanesi is the most decorated female rider, having won six WMX titles. 

Duncan is determined to eclipse the Italian star’s record and leave behind a formidable legacy in the sport.  

To that end she’s moving forward again, with another change of team to the Dutch based F&H Racing. She says when the opportunity arose it was a no-brainer. 

“It’s going to expose me to resources that I didn’t have before,” Duncan explains. “I feel like this team aligns with my purposes a whole lot better. I honestly haven’t been more motivated for a season than this one. I want to test my abilities and see how many I can win and how good I can be.” 

• The 2024 WMX championship starts in Spain on March 23.