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Posted: 2024-07-05 04:34:17

In short: 

Logan Martin is one of six athletes heading to Paris on the Australian cycling team unveiled today.

The Tokyo 2020 gold medallist will be joined by Natalya Diehm, Saya Sakakibara, Izaac Kennedy, Rebecca Henderson and Lauren Reynolds.

What's next: 

They will take on the best in the world at the Paris games this month.

Logan Martin has some secret tricks up his sleeve that he plans to use to defend his Olympic freestyle BMX title this month.

The 30-year-old says he has been working on the new tricks in training every day for the past year.

The first time he attempts them in competition will be in the Olympic final.

"I definitely have been working on a few new tricks over the past year or so, stuff that I have kept off social media," Martin said.

"They are ready to go and, if all goes to plan, I will have some new tricks in my best finals run at the Olympics."

Martin was one of the breakout stars of the 2021 Tokyo games, winning gold for Australia when freestyle BMX made its Olympic debut.

He was already a bona fide star in the BMX world, but he said the exposure of the Olympics was life-changing.

"Going in to Tokyo I had already won a lot of events in freestyle BMX and had that publicity around me inside in the sport," he said.

"The Olympics just opened up a whole new level of it to me. I have had so many crazy different opportunities pop up that probably wouldn't have happened without the Olympics."

Cycling team unveiled

He is one of six athletes heading to Paris on the Australian cycling team unveiled today at the BMX high performance training centre on the Gold Coast.

He will be joined by fellow freestyle rider Natalya Diehm, 26, and BMX racing young guns Saya Sakakibara, 24, and Izaac Kennedy, 23.

Veteran cross-country mountain biker Rebecca Henderson, 32, and BMX racer Lauren Reynolds, 33, will make history, joining Anna Meares as the only Australian women to ride at four Olympic games.

Knee ruptures don't slow Diehm down

Diehm's selection caps of a remarkable comeback for the young rider from Boyne Island, a small town just south of Gladstone.

Two weeks before the Tokyo games she ruptured her ACL for the fifth time.

A woman sits on a BMX bike inside a ramp track

Natalya Diehm is returning for her second Olympic Games in the BMX Freestyle.(ABC Gold Coast: Mackenzie Colahan)

Instead of withdrawing she rode through the pain, narrowly missing a bronze medal and finishing in fifth place.

Since then she has undergone two knee surgeries and two surgeries.

She considered retiring from the sport, but refused to give up and is fit and firing for Paris.

"I didn't think I would be standing here today," Diehm said.

"It was really hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel, especially at the start when I was in pain and couldn't straighten my leg.

"Every time I was like, 'Is the risk worth the reward?'

"I feel very healthy, very strong — the strongest I have ever felt in my riding career and as confident as I will ever be."

Because of COVID restrictions, there was no crowd when she made her Olympic debut.

A man and a woman in green and gold jerseys stand holding over-sized plane tickets

Both Natalya Diehm and Logan Martin say they're excited to compete in an Olympics where their familes can watch from the stands. (ABC Gold Coast: Mackenzie Colahan)

This time her family will be there to cheer her on.

"It definitely feels incredible to be holding this ticket right now. It feels better than the first time," she said.

"To be doing it with my mum in the crowd, with an amazing team in an amazing sport and having Australia back me is a once-in-a-lifetime thing."

Martin's family also had to watch him win gold on TV. This time his wife and two young children are travelling to Paris.

As the reigning champion he knows he will have a target on his back.

The man standing in the way of back-to-back gold medals is current world number one Anthony Jeanjean.

The Frenchman will have the home crowd advantage, but as the favourite he will be under enormous pressure.

Martin says the only pressure he feels is the pressure he puts on himself to perform at his best.

"Every day you're riding on an adrenaline rush, you are scaring yourself and to come out the other side in one piece is always pretty rewarding.

"I have done a lot over the work over the years to be at the top of the sport.

"[Representing Australia at the Olympics] makes all the hard work worth it."

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