In the women’s category, Silvia Koričárová is now the youngest racer in Slovakia, as well as the vice-champion of the Slovak Motorcycle Federation Cup, in which Slovakia’s top motocross elite competes. Bad luck prevented her from winning first place in 2018 in Trenčín, when her motorbike failed her on the first ride. This meant she could not start the second ride and in the next rounds of the cup, she was no longer able to make up her time. During last year’s short season, Silvia managed to win many other prizes, as well as the second place in the Slovak Cup. The most important ones were the first place at the Wintercross Brezno, the Enduro Cup central Trenčín and the SCRUB MX LADIES Slovenské Pravno, as well as third place in the Budovec Cup Brezno.
An injury during the season led to eyesight problems
After winning the first race, Silvia tried to overtake a Polish racer on one of the jumps. As a result of this risky manoeuvre, she spent two weeks in hospital. By miracle, the talented rider did not break any bones, but she had concussion, and internal bleeding, crushed lungs, spleen and liver were the unpleasant result of her complicated injuries. “After her accident, Silvia has to take it easy. She can’t afford to have any accident now. For Christmas, she was given a new motorbike as a surprise present, but her Mum wouldn’t let her do any races. We’ll see what happens now, everything is open,” says Silvia’s father Roman Koričár, who is also her all-in-one coach and mechanic. Silvia still has a blood clot in her head, which doctors are monitoring. At present, she feels much better. However, she has started to have problems with her vision.
From the beginning of the year, Silvia is planning light training sessions with her father on all the tracks in Slovakia, but for the moment she has to forget about races. Roman Koričár adds: “She certainly won’t go on any difficult tracks. After her accident, it’s been a year since she raced, so she needs to start slowly from scratch to gain confidence. She also had an eye examination. Silvia began to complain that she couldn’t see distant objects well. I was afraid this was a result of her accident.”
Worsened eyesight not related to her motorbike fall
As well as motocross, Silvia Koričárová also enjoys skiing, working out, running and swimming. Her eyesight problem was only discovered after her accident. With her father, she visited the UVEA Mediklinik eye clinic in Martin. After several examinations, there turned out to be no link with her accident.
“We examined her long-distance and short-distance vision and discovered that Silvia had a common eyesight problem which occurs as people grow up and which is beginning to affect more and more young people. It is short-sightedness which means that people don’t see distant objects clearly,” explained the doctor Iveta Katuščáková from the UVEA Mediklinik eye clinic.
However, Silvia need sharp eyesight on her motorbike, so as a temporary solution she has chosen to wear glasses and for races, she needs to wear contact lenses. Short-sightedness can only be removed by surgery, which is not usually performed on young people, so the motorcycle racer was advised to wait and see how her long-distance vision would develop with age. “Above the age of eighteen, we can consider a laser operation; today, it is a common, quick and painless operation which helps remove sightedness,” adds Iveta Katuščáková.
She will do anything it takes to ride again
“Perhaps we won’t go to the Slovak Championship in May, I have to think about it. What I’m most afraid of is that if Silvia is close behind her competitors, something similar can happen again. The main thing is for me to see that she has it under control and that she’s thinking. She’s as good as the other girls, but she can’t beat them all after taking a break for one year,” thinks her father, adding: “At the beginning no-one knew Silvia, no-one even wanted to talk to her. Then we came to the race, she overtook everyone and we went home. Before, when Silvia called the other girls to come and train together, no-one came. Now it’s the other way round, and the girls ask Silvia to come to their trainings to learn something new.”