Tokyo Olympics 2021: Logan Martin wins gold, BMX freestyle results and news

BMX star Logan Martin built a world-class skatepark in his backyard to prepare for his first Olympic Games - an investment that well and truly paid off on Sunday morning.

Logan Martin has wings.

The 27-year-old Queenslander let loose with an spectacular array of high-flying flips, tricks and sommersaults to claim the first ever gold medal in BMX freestyle, at one stage letting go of the handlebars and spreading his arms as if in flight.

Martin, who shelled out $70,000 to build a world-class skaetepark in his backyard - much to his neighbours’ dislike - to prepare for his first Games, nailed the gold with his first run.

“The plan all along was build the skate park and win a gold medal, the neighbours didn’t like it at the start, they sort of mellowed out a little, stopped complaining to the council, 6 months to a year later,” Logan said.

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Logan Martin took the first-ever BMX freestyle gold.

“But it was all worth it and I hope they say it was all worth it, too.

“I’m sure they will (have bragging rights).”

In his golden run, Logan didn’t even showcase his best tricks.

“That was my safety run, I didn’t even do any of my bigger tricks on the box jump or on the spine,” Martin said.

“I honestly just wanted to lay down a good first run with the tricks I knew I could do, I also did a front flip no hander — just because I knew I could do it.”

“But I still had more to give, if anyone’s seen me compete or ride over the years they know I can do bigger tricks, and if they follow me on Instagram they definitely see the bigger tricks that I do.”

Sunday’s final was a spectacular Olympic debut for freestyle BMX, with all nine finalists defying gravity in their two runs.

And Martin’s performance appeared anything by “safe”, landing the two-time world champion, three-time national champion and star of the X Games circuit a huge score of 93.3 and cementing him at the top of the leaderboard.

His closest rival was Venezuela’s Daniel Dhers, who scored a 92.05 on his second run, meaning Martin didn’t even need to complete his final run to win gold.

The 27-year-old won the event with his first run.

“I did want to come out swinging in my second run, I was still in the mindset of someone coming to overtake that (score), but it took the pressure off my shoulders,” he said.

After his winning race, Martin spoke to wife Kim, who is pregnant with their second child, and two-year-old son Noah, saying he was “overwhelmed” by their support.

The family has been open about their struggles to get pregnant, with Kim suffering a miscarriage in August 2020. They revealed they were pregnant again in May, after months of trying and complications.

“I love them so much, my family means everything to me and I got a little teary at the end there,” Martin said.

“I never really get teary… but this one shows how much it means to me to be the first ever gold medallist for BMX freestyle.”

Logan is better know globally than he is at home thanks to the lucrative X Games circuit, but he remains a down to earth family man.

“BMX is quite lucrative, I think we have the visual aspect to it, people can understand and enjoy it and I picked up a few good sponsors eight years ago, where I could solely focus on riding my bike and travelling to my events,” he said.

“It’s quite a lucrative sport, I’ve made some good money in the past few years. But my thing is to not waste it, I’m not in the sport for a very long time so I’m just trying to be smart with it while I’m making good money.”

Martin with his son Noah. Picture: Instagram.

And for Martin, he’s lucky training doesn’t take too much time away from his young family — he can just step out the backdoor into a world-class skatepark.

He built it with a few mates in 2019, with the sole purpose of using it to secure Olympic gold.

“I didn’t have a training facility around me so I built a skatepark to a world-class standard,” he said.

“It truly paid off, I purely built it to get to the Olympics and I got here. It’s crazy to think if you chase after what you want, set goals, truly go after it, you can honestly do anything.

“The skate park was an investment and it paid off.”

Natalya Diehm finished a gutsy fifth in the women’s event.

Now that he has a taste for gold, Martin says this is just the start for him, eyeing off a spot at Paris 2024.

In the women’s BMX freestyle final, Australia’s Natalya Diehm produced one of the gutsiest performances to finish agonisingly short of a bronze medal in the dying moments after dislocating her patella on landing the backflip leading to a fall.

Diehm tore her ACL for a fifth time just two weeks before flying out to Tokyo but it didn’t stop her from competing for Australia.

The 23-year-old fought the pain to not only reach the final, but pull off a backflip early in her opening run – which scored 86.0 and had her sitting on a bronze medal until incredible late runs from England’s gold medal-winner Charlotte Worthington and American Perris Benegas bumped her down to fifth.

Logan Martin soars into the sky during his successful finals run.

Australia's Logan Martin nails a backflip.

Australia's Logan Martin competes in the cycling BMX freestyle men's park final.

Logan Martin warms up before the final.

Logan Martin drops in.

Australia's Logan Martin shows off his talent with the stand in the background.

Gold medallist Logan Martin takes to the sky.

Martin will go down as the first Olympic freestyle BMX champion.