Israeli rally athlete and extreme motorsport enthusiast Alona Ben Natan finished first in the 2025 FIM Bajas World Cup’s female category after racing in Dubai on Sunday.
This year’s World Cup consisted of seven races (an additional round in Hungary was canceled after the season started), and in Dubai, motorcyclist Ben Natan covered 842 kilometers (523 miles) in two-and-a-half days.
“I am really proud of myself and very excited. My plan was to finish first, and I did it. I am well prepared and can now compete in bigger rallies next year. I’m ready for the next level, which is to race in the biggest international rallies so they can prepare me for the finish line—which for me is Dakar 2027,” Ben Natan told JNS on Sunday.
“I want to thank everyone who followed and motivated me, including my family, friends and the riders who competed alongside me. When I see myself racing next to these superstars, it shows me that I am capable of being on the same stage and in the same events, and that I have the strength to do it,” she continued.
“Three years ago, I wasn’t even thinking about world championships. I couldn’t have imagined saying that I am a world champion. I am really happy and have big plans for next year,” she added.
In 2022, Ben Natan became the first Israeli rider to compete in Dubai and, later that year, the first Israeli woman to participate in the Aicha des Gazelles rally in Morocco.
“Every sport connects. We go from race to race. We get to know each other as athletes and through our successes. You learn from everyone. We don’t get into politics,” she said.
Ben Natan said she fell in love with the sport by accident six years ago.
“We had a barbecue with family, and a friend had two bikes in his backyard. He asked if I wanted to go for a ride—he had just fixed the bikes and wanted to see if they worked well—so I joined in. I was looking for something new in my life. I came back from that ride very excited. A week later, I bought a bike and all the gear,” she said.
She quickly made friends in the sport and began training with them.
“Five years ago, we went on an enduro trip in Romania. At the top of the mountains, after a really good ride, my friend looked at me and said, ‘Alona, you should try rallies. I think you’ll love it,’” she recalled.
(Enduro is a form of motorcycle sport run on extended cross-country, off-road courses.)
First in a rally in Israel
Upon her return to Israel, Ben Natan and her friend headed to the desert, where he lent her his motorcycle and an off-road guidebook. One month later, she finished first in a rally in Israel.
“Now, I’m racing in world championships. At first, I didn’t know it would lead me to all these places and international stages. I’m getting so much support—not only from friends and family but also from other riders and from people outside the sport, including parents who say their children feel empowered by me,” she said.
Three years ago, her first race in the FIM Baja World Cup took her to Jordan, where she met the UAE’s Mohammed Al Balooshi, the 2018 and 2023 World Cup champion. Later, she received a call from the Israeli embassy in Morocco, which told her they hoped to promote the Abraham Accords through sports.
“They asked if I wanted to join a peace team in Morocco with a Moroccan co-pilot, Hyba Benryane. They called us the Daughters of Abraham, and it was a very successful project. We won, and donated the prize to a village in Morocco,” Ben Natan said.
“We visited the Jewish community in Essaouira. To this day, we’re good friends. We see each other—she lives in Switzerland, and her family is in Morocco. It shows that as people, we don’t really think about politics, and it was beautiful to see this connection,” she added.
Regarding racing in Arab countries, Ben Natan said that at first it felt confusing, and she wondered whether everything would be OK.
“When you get there—especially in Dubai—you really feel safe. I’ve never received any anti-Israel comments here. I have many friends from different countries, including some without diplomatic relations with Israel, such as Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. Sport connects us,” she said.
The biggest challenge, Ben Natan noted, is the mental preparation required for the races.
“In every country, you’re racing on different terrain—forests, rocks, mountains, or sand in Dubai. Temperatures are high, and sometimes, you race up to 500 kilometers [310 miles] a day for several days. It’s a long marathon, and you have to stay focused and navigate,” she said.
“If you fall or crash, you have to know how to do the minimum to fix your bike. At the end of the day, you’re alone in the desert. The goal is to finish safely, as fast as you can, and collect all the points throughout the ride,” Ben Natan added.
Her training, she said, combines yoga, Pilates, navigation practice, riding in the Israeli desert and forests, cycling and swimming.
Since Oct. 7
Since Oct. 7, 2023, Ben Natan said she has lost some followers.
“On Oct. 7, I was racing in Portugal. I was on the bike finishing the day when I saw what was happening. It was very hard. I couldn’t come back for more than a week, not knowing whether my family was safe. It was frustrating,” she said.
She was supposed to participate in other rallies, but canceled everything and is only returning to racing this year.
“I received a lot of messages from friends in Dubai and Saudi Arabia, asking if everything was OK and when I’d be back. I couldn’t race—I didn’t feel comfortable competing while my friends were fighting in the army, some of them dying. Now I’m back at full power,” she said.
The key to her success, Ben Natan said, is to never stop dreaming and to visualize herself finishing the journey at her desired destination.
“That’s how it works for me. I see myself where I want to go, and somehow I find a way. When you do what you love, you find a way to conquer it. When I started, I bought the oldest bike. I didn’t know anything about the sport. Take the first step, persist, and it will happen; that’s the secret. Believe in yourself,” she said.
Ben Natan’s current goal is to compete in the 2027 Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia.
“I’m doing my best to get there. It’s the toughest race. To qualify, I must finish the race in Dubai and continue to bigger rallies in Europe and Argentina. I’m happy to become, if not the first, then one of the first Israelis racing in Saudi Arabia, especially as a woman, to show the world that we can do it and that sport is a neutral stage where politics shouldn’t enter,” she said.
To qualify for Dakar, Ben Natan—who has accumulated half the required points—must race in the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid in Portugal in March, then in Argentina in May. In June, she will know whether she qualified.
