MOTOSURF STAR ELIŠKA MATOUŠKOVÁ OF CZECHIA HEADS TO CHENGDU

MotoSurf, a new discipline in The World Games 2025, is an exciting, fast-paced sport that began in Czechia in 2012. Competitors ride motorized surfboards, navigating a slalom course marked by buoys and balloons. Eliška Matoušková is the current women’s World Champion, having won again in 2023 at just 15, making her the youngest female World Champion ever.

Eliška Matoušková’s World Championship successes in races held in Zadar, Croatia, qualify her for TWG 2025 in Chengdu – where she will undoubtedly meet the biggest challenge of her short sporting career. After confirmation of her qualification to TWG, she says: “I was really happy, I was proud to see my name there.” The news has led to home-country media attention: “a few contacts but not something big”; if she wins a medal at TWG, she can expect a lot more of that in the coming year.

Matoušková started in MotoSurf in 2020 (when she was 12) and quickly demonstrated that she has special skills for this sport: she became World Champion in the Junior Category already in 2021. Now in 2024 she is also the European Champion, again for the third time.

MotoSurf competition has already taken Eliška Matoušková to many parts of the world. Six competitions made up the 2024 world elite series – in UAE, Poland, Sweden, Italy, Croatia and China – and she has competed in all of them. Czech athletes currently dominate the top of the women’s results lists, and Matoušková has headed the list throughout the season. She finished the 2024 series with 428 points, 35 points ahead of second-placed Aneta Stloukalová (CZE) who has been her closest challenger throughout. At the TWG qualification races in Croatia, MotoSurf World Championship News wrote: “The spectators around the Borik Beach witnessed another dominating ride from Czech Republic’s Eliška Matoušková, who dominated the heats and finals.”

Agility, drive and quick reactions are essential qualities for success in this sport. “The main thing is your mentality, to have a clear head, but I must also have good physical form,” tells Matoušková. “I ski a lot in the winter break, and I also have gym sessions with my trainer.”

“In an elite competition, the races last about 10 minutes on a course with up to 12 laps, and there can be 3 races per day,” she says. Asked if she will do any special preparation for The World Games – for example training methods, practice with new equipment, etc., she comments: “I think I will leave things how they are, it looks like they’re working :).”

Matoušková competes for the Powerboarding club Rocket Racing MP Sports in her home country. To keep at the top of the tree, she can expect another year of travelling for world series competition – and to add to this, TWG! How do you manage your school work, when you are often away to other parts of the world to compete? “With school it’s quite hard, I need to focus on that too and it’s very challenging to put these together,” she says.

At TWG 2025 Eliška Matoušková will be, at the age of 17, one of the youngest competitors in any sport, but with a fantastically successful background from which to aim for the coveted gold medal.