The inaugural WMX invitational marked a significant moment for women’s motocross, bringing the sport’s leading talent to the 2026 Monster Energy SMX World Championship finale at Thunder Ridge Nature Arena in Missouri. Australian Charli Cannon reflects on the landmark occasion and what it meant to compete on the world stage in this Conversation feature.

Image: Octopi Media.

There was a lot of drama, a lot of emotion. I want to know where you’re at with it. I saw the emotion when you came off track. How are you processing it now?

Yeah, that one hurt a bit for me. I’ve been working hard these last few weeks and months by myself, doing what I feel works best for me. I felt good tonight, and just that little mistake on that first lap – I nearly went down, lost a lot of time, and then worked my way back up and got to the front group. I just felt good. I felt like I had the pace. I felt like that should have been my one, but stuff happens. A lot of learning. As I said before, it is a bit frustrating always coming second, but it’s part of the process. I’m just grateful to be able to have this opportunity, and just a massive thank you to the people behind me who get me here – Millsaps Training Facility (MTF), Colleen Millsaps, and Yarrive Konksy.

On that last lap, you missed the perfect jump by maybe three inches or so. What happened one jump before that, where you kind of lost the pace and the launch off that jump?

Yeah, so that section, we were kind of cutting back inside-outside, and I went outside, cut down to the inside, and there’s a bit of a higher roller on the inside. I hit that and kind of just rode headfirst into the next roller, and I didn’t have the momentum to clear the next double. So then I cased it and just didn’t have the drive to get over it all, and then just had to end up rolling them. So, yeah, that was a little bit of a mistake on my behalf, but it didn’t really affect much.

Image: Octopi Media.

Tonight you raced after the 250 and 450 classes. Could you explain how the track raced versus what you saw in qualifying and practice, which was probably a much smoother track?

Honestly, the race I felt was probably a bit smoother. They did some track work and just flattened some of the berms, where in qualifying there were ruts, and it was a bit dry and slick. So, I think every time we were out on track, it was pretty good conditions. Nothing too crazy. I just enjoyed it.

How did you enjoy racing on a more supercross-style track now that you’ve gotten the chance to ride on it?

Yeah, I loved it. I really, really enjoyed this type of racing. It’s kind of nice to race this track as a little entry into supercross. It’s not that technical out here, it’s more motocrossy, but it’s a nice little insight into what to expect. I just hope we can get more of these types of races in the future and see how far we can push WMX in motorsports. So, yeah, I had a lot of fun, and I really enjoy this type of racing and riding.

Image: Octopi Media.

You had a scary moment there in Q1. What exactly happened in that crash, and are you okay?

Yeah, that was pretty scary. I think I just didn’t give it enough power over the big triple, and there were some ruts up the face. I guess I just hesitated a little bit and came up pretty short. You go over the handlebars when you come up short on a jump like that, so I got out of it pretty lucky. It hurt. I had to pause for a little bit, and I felt it afterwards as time went on, but I recovered and took what I needed to take to be okay for the racing. Once you’re out on track, you kind of just forget about all the pain. So, yeah, I’m all good. Just a little bit banged up.

Can you talk about the commitment that is required to race supercross? These obstacles are no joke, and on TV it’s one thing, but being here in person, they’re pretty big hits. Can you walk us through how it feels to go from qualifying to, ‘Alright, I’m ready. Here we go. I’m going to hit these things?’

Yeah, I feel like at the level of rider we all are now, a jump’s a jump. I feel like you kind of just have to commit pretty early on. It’s kind of ballsy, but that’s how, in my case, I feel like I can do all the jumps pretty early. You just have to commit straight away, and then once you know the speed and that, all the jumps kind of are the same. I’ve done some time, some weeks, on these types of supercross jumps, so that gave me a bit more confidence to be able to do all these jumps as well. I have never hit anything as big as these before, but just with how the track was, it was quite fast. So, yeah, I didn’t really have any problems with all the jumps. It was fun.