Emily Bondi is a 23-year-old French motorcycle racer who went from crashing on her first track day to winning a national championship in her debut racing season—all while juggling a degree from one of Europe’s top business schools.

EARLY YEARS

Born around 2001, Bondi didn’t grow up with racing in her blood. There’s no romanticized story of a childhood spent in paddocks or a family tradition of motorsports. Instead, her early years were filled with entirely different competitive pursuits—horseball, skiing, and jet skiing—sports that would eventually give her an unexpected edge on two wheels.

She was the kind of kid who needed to move, to compete, to win. By age 14, she was hitting the gym three to four times a week, a routine she’d maintain for years. On horseback, she became a French champion in horseball, a fast-paced team sport that demands balance, coordination, and fearlessness. She carved through slalom courses on skis and whipped across water on jet skis, building the physical foundation and competitive mindset that would later translate seamlessly to motorcycle racing.

Her path to racing was pure accident—literally. Emily took the bike she rode to school every day to a track day, just to see what it felt like. She crashed on the last corner. Most people would’ve called it a day and gone back to their normal commute. Instead, she fell in love. “I fell in love at that moment on my first day on track,” she recalled. “The feeling, the people, the way they talk about motorcycles, the sport. I fell in love.”

While discovering her racing passion, Bondi was also pursuing serious academics. She enrolled in the IÉSEG Grande École Program, one of France’s respected business schools, and actually graduated—a feat many aspiring racers talk about but few accomplish while trying to break into motorsports.

OTHER INTERESTS

Before racing consumed her life, Emily Bondi was a French horseball champion. If you’re not familiar with horseball, picture basketball meets rugby on horseback—it’s chaotic, physical, and requires the kind of balance and nerve that you can’t teach in a classroom.

She didn’t stop there. Skiing slalom runs and jet skiing became regular activities, both serving as balance training without her even realizing it. That gym routine she started at 14? She kept it up, hitting the weights three to four times a week, building the core strength and endurance that would become crucial when wrestling a motorcycle around a circuit.

All these sports shared one thing: they fed her competitive fire. “When I compete, I want to win. I’m very competitive,” she said, a statement that would prove to be an understatement once she got serious about racing. As of 2024, she was recovering from an injury, though the specifics remain private—an occupational hazard when you’re pushing limits in multiple physical pursuits.

EARLY SUCCESS

Bondi’s entry into actual racing reads like a comedy of errors that somehow ended in triumph. In 2023, she showed up to her first round of the French Women’s Championship like, in her words, “a tourist.” She had her bike and some tools. No pit board. No tyre warmers. No real plan.

Race 1 was a disaster waiting to happen. She didn’t even know the starting procedure. “I didn’t know what was the sign to start either. So when the red lights went out and everyone else started and passed me. It was a total mess,” she admitted. Somehow, from dead last, she clawed her way back to third place. “I didn’t know how I did it!”

Race 2? She had to start from the pit lane. She still finished third.

Most people would’ve been thrilled with two podiums in their first-ever race weekend. Emily went home, trained, got the proper equipment, and came back to the second weekend ready to show what she could actually do when she wasn’t starting from the back or the pit lane. She won.

By the end of 2023—her debut season, remember—she was the French Women’s Championship champion. Not just a race winner. Not just a podium regular. Champion. In her first year of racing. One year after that track day crash that started it all.

The 600cc Women’s Cup title was hers, and suddenly the “tourist” with no pit board was being called a “Princess On A Bike” who meant business. Her story caught the attention of Poets & Quants, who interviewed the IÉSEG graduate turned racing champion in August 2025, highlighting her unique path from business school to the international racing stage.

NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS

• 2023: French Women’s Championship Champion (debut season)
• 2023: 600cc Women’s Cup Champion
• 2023: Third place in Race 1 of opening French Women’s Championship round (from last on grid)
• 2023: Third place in Race 2 of opening French Women’s Championship round (pit lane start)
• 2023: Race win at second round of French Women’s Championship
• 2024: Selected for inaugural FIM Women’s Circuit Racing World Championship (WorldWCR) with Yart Zelos Black Knights Team

INSPIRATIONS

The research reveals no specific racing heroes or role models that Bondi has publicly cited. Her inspiration seems to come from a more internal place—that competitive fire that drove her to become a French horseball champion, that made her hit the gym religiously as a teenager, that turned a track day crash into a love affair with motorcycles.

What is clear is her philosophy: “I Prefer to be Challenged.” It’s a mindset that’s carried her from zero racing experience to a world championship grid in just over a year, and it suggests her greatest competition might just be with herself.

REPUTATION

Emily Bondi burst onto the scene so quickly that she’s still building her reputation rather than sitting comfortably within an established one. What’s undeniable is the impression her debut made—going from complete novice to national champion in a single season doesn’t happen by accident.

Media coverage has been overwhelmingly positive, with outlets highlighting her stunning debut and positioning her as ready for the international stage. Being selected for the inaugural WorldWCR lineup with the Yart Zelos Black Knights Team in 2024 was a vote of confidence from the industry that her French championship wasn’t a fluke.

She’s known for that competitive drive—the same intensity that made her a champion in horseball now channeled into two-wheeled racing. Her background in multiple balance-intensive sports has given her an edge, even if she arrived at racing later than most. And her willingness to show up as a “tourist” with minimal equipment, then immediately adapt and dominate, speaks to both confidence and ability.

Riding a Yamaha R7 and equipped by Skeed, she’s building partnerships while building her career. The racing world is watching to see if the woman who conquered France in her first year can make the same impact on the world stage.

FUTURE GOALS/PLANS

As of 2024, Bondi was competing in her second season of racing overall—the inaugural FIM Women’s Circuit Racing World Championship with Yart Zelos Black Knights Team. Her philosophy heading into this new challenge was characteristically straightforward: “Times are changing and it’s up to me to make things happen.”

Specific plans for 2025 and beyond haven’t been publicly detailed, but given her trajectory—from school commuter bike to national champion to world championship grid in roughly two years—it would be foolish to bet against her making those things happen. She’s recovering from an injury as of the available information, but if her debut season taught us anything, it’s that Emily Bondi doesn’t let setbacks slow her down for long.

References:

I Prefer to be Challenged – WorldWCR Series Vol. 8 Emily Bondi – Paddock Sorority
IÉSEG Graduate Featured in Poets & Quants Interview
Meet the women of the inaugural running of WorldWCR – Females in Motorsport
Emily Bondi – Skeed Riders
HER STORY: meet Emily Bondi – WorldSBK