INTERVIEW I OFF-ROAD RACER TARAH GIEGER
P54
THE QUEEN CALLS
IT A CAREER
I
f you followed motocross and
especially women's motocross in
the early 2000s, Tarah Gieger was
a familiar name and face. When she
turned pro in 2003, it would've been
easy to overlook or dismiss her.
After all, the number of successful
motocrossers born in Puerto Rico is
a small one.
But her talent was impossible
to miss and her forays to the U.S.
mainland soon showcased that. She
eventually moved to Florida, eliminat
-
ing the burdensome overwater travel
that a Puerto Rican base required.
It was a wise move.
Gieger began to write her résumé
with the Women's-class title at the
2003 AMA Amateur National Mo
-
tocross Championship at Loretta
Lynn's, adding another in 2006 and
defending it in 2007.
She wasn't done. Not by a long shot.
Shortly after her Loretta's Champi
-
onship in 2007, she became the first
woman to race in the prestigious
Motocross of Nations, though the
team didn't qualify for the big show.
The following year, she claimed
the inaugural Women's Moto X Rac
-
ing (a supercross-style event) gold at
X Games XIV with silver at X Games
XVI in 2010. Those weren't her only
career X Games medals.
Gieger did double duty at X Games
XVII in 2011 and went home with a
pair of silvers—one in Women's Moto X
Racing and the other in Women's Moto
X Enduro, the X Games version of
AMA EnduroCross—and she followed
that up with another Women's Moto
X Racing silver in 2012, the Women's
Moto X Enduro bronze in 2013 and a
final Enduro silver in 2015.
Perhaps inspired by being around
X Games athletes, in 2004 Gieger be
-
came the first female to successfully
complete a backflip on a motorcycle.
