In addition to the annual fierce competition between the world’s best watercross athletes, competitors and spectators at this year’s IJSBA World Finals in Lake Havasu City also witnessed history being made as Demi Morgan was named the first female World Champion in Freestyle, besting a field of nearly a dozen competitors.
Morgan was crowned Amateur Freestyle Champion at the 2023 Short Block Technologies WGP-1 World Finals, and event organizer and IJSBA Executive Director Scott Frazier contacted The Watercraft Journal to talk about the significant event.
Frazier said that both Amateur Freestyle and Pro Freestyle have been won exclusively by men since the inception of the sport 42 years ago, and said that he was extremely proud of Morgan and the work she has put into her sport.
“I am personally so proud of Demi and her hard work she has put into the sport makes her truly deserving,” Fraizer told The Watercraft Journal. “She is an excellent ambassador for our community and a great role model to young women everywhere to show that it is possible to break through and become the very best in what has been, up to now, a male dominated category.”
Frazier added that, in addition to Morgan’s success in the class, a new female freestyle competition, Vanessa Jones from Albania, joined the Amateur class, continuing the increased diversity in the freestyle competition class.
Joining Morgan on the podium for the 2023 IJSBA World Finals in Amateur Freestyle were Parker Scholand in second and Jack Dubois earning the third spot.
Morgan’s win in the Amateur Class also meant that the pro class lineup included a bit of that diversity, as Morgan took her place among the eleven competitors for the Pro Freestyle Championship, where Nolan Jukish walked away from the weekend with the Freestyle Championship, and Gabe Jukish locked down the third place podium spot, split by second-place winner Mark Gomez.
Photos courtesy Chris Liu, video courtesy Geno Bates.
