Logan Martin wins BMX Freestyle, first Tokyo Olympics cycling gold for Australia

TOKYO JAPAN AUGUST 01 Logan Martin of Team Australia competes in the during the Mens Park Final run 1 of the BMX Freestyle on day nine of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Ariake Urban Sports Park on August 01 2021 in Tokyo Japan Photo by Jamie SquireGetty Images
Logan Martin (Australia) during the finals of the BMX Freestyle of the Tokyo Olympic Games (Image credit: Getty Images Sport)

Australia’s Logan Martin has won the men’s BMX Freestyle, with the world champion securing the nation its first cycling gold medal of the Tokyo Olympic Games with his very first run.

The 27 year old rider from Queensland’s Gold Coast slotted straight into the gold medal position early delivering a score of 93.3 with a beautifully executed series of tricks in his first minute-long appearance in the final. 

“I won the seeding run, then came out here and my first run was actually a safety run," said Martin. "I wanted to land a run I knew I could deliver, make it clean, keep it consistent, and that really paid off."

Venezuela’s veteran of the sport Daniel Dhers, 36, was the only other rider who scored over 90 in his first minute which meant the pressure was on all the other riders to rise to the mark set by Logan when they set out for their second and final run on the Ariake Urban Sports Park on Sunday.

Being the top seeded rider, Martin was last out so for him it was a matter of sitting back and waiting to see if the rest of the 9 strong-field could deliver a better performance. As the rest of the riders came through it was again Dhers who delivered the biggest challenge, increasing his initial score of 90.10, but at 92.05 it wasn’t enough to challenge Martin. It was, however, enough to secure the silver medal. 

The medals had already been decided when Martin came out for his second run, and for a moment it looked like he might just deliver an even higher score. However, he ultimately decided to spend much of his minute long final run savouring his win, which secured the first ever gold medal to be awarded at the Olympics for the men’s BMX Freestyle

"I had more to do in my second run, but I obviously didn’t need to do it," said Martin. "I did do the front bike flip (in my second run), but I just wanted to do that for the fans and everyone watching back home.

“I have no words. This is crazy. It’s been such a long journey to get here. I fully set out to get here and win the gold medal. I came in as the favourite after winning the world championships last month, so I had a lot of pressure coming into Japan.

The gold medal is not the first landmark event victory for Martin, with the Australian taking out the first-ever World Cup in 2016 and the first World Championships in 2017 at the UCI Urban worlds in China.

“I’ve had so many highs in my career, but I’ve never, ever gotten teary, so that just shows how meaningful this one is to me," said the father of one, with another on the way. "It’s the biggest stage of them all, the gold medal, to bring that home and show my son. For him to look up to me … it’s amazing.”

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Simone Giuliani
Australia Editor

Simone is a degree-qualified journalist that has accumulated decades of wide-ranging experience while working across a variety of leading media organisations. She joined Cyclingnews as a Production Editor at the start of the 2021 season and has now moved into the role of Australia Editor. Previously she worked as a freelance writer, Australian Editor at Ella CyclingTips and as a correspondent for Reuters and Bloomberg. Cycling was initially purely a leisure pursuit for Simone, who started out as a business journalist, but in 2015 her career focus also shifted to the sport.