Natalya Diehm (born 23 September 1997) is an Australian cyclist who competes in Freestyle BMX. She was a bronze medalist at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Natalya Diehm | ||||||||||||||
| Born | 23 September 1997 Gladstone, Queensland, Australia | ||||||||||||||
| Team information | |||||||||||||||
| Discipline | BMX | ||||||||||||||
| Role | Rider | ||||||||||||||
| Rider type | Freestyle | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Biography
editDiehm was born in Gladstone, Queensland, and grew up in nearby Boyne Island.[1] She started riding BMX at the age of eight.[2]
Diehm is openly gay.[3]
Career
editDiehm finished 6th at the 2019 UCI Urban Cycling World Championships at Australia's first appearance in the event. In 2019 she won the inaugural Oceania Championships as well as winning the Australian national title.[4] In total she has three national titles.[5]
After recovering from her fourth knee reconstruction in late 2018, Diehm was discouraged from pursuing her Olympic ambitions and almost left the sport.[6] However, she received motivation from BMX racing world champion and Olympian Caroline Buchanan who contacted Diehm to offer encouragement and support which prompted Diehm to continue.[6]
Olympic Games
editDiehm made history as one of Australia's first Olympic BMX freestylers when the discipline made its Games debut at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.[7] As the only two Australian BMX freestylers selected, Diehm became the first Australian woman to compete in the women's event while Logan Martin became the first Australian man to compete in the men's event.[8][9] Despite suffering a ruptured ACL two weeks prior, Diehm reached the women's freestyle final, finishing fifth.[10][11]
In July 2024, she became the first Australian woman to win a medal in BMX Freestyle Park event, winning bronze at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.[12][13] She placed eighth in the qualification round and had to perform second in the final. She scored 88.80 in the first run to provisionally place in a silver-medal position. She didn't improve in the second run despite coming out with front-flip and eventually placed in the third.[14]
Competitive history
editAll results are sourced from the Union Cycliste Internationale.
As of August 5th, 2024
Olympic Games
edit| Event | Freestyle Park |
|---|---|
 2020 Tokyo
|
5th |
 2024 Paris
|
Bronze |
UCI Cycling World Championships
edit| Event | Freestyle Park |
|---|---|
 2019 Chengdu
|
6th |
| 2021 Montpellier
|
— |
 2022 Abu Dhabi
|
— |
 2023 Glasgow
|
21st |
UCI BMX Freestyle Park World Cup
edit| Season | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Rank | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | DIR — |
MON 12 |
BRU 7 |
BAZ 4 |
11 | 1010 |
| 2024 | ENO 5 |
MON — |
SHA |
11 | 720 |
References
edit- ^ Berlin, Lachlan (18 June 2021). "CQ-born BMX rider's historic Olympic selection". The Observer. News Corp Australia. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
- ^ "Natalya Diehm". Australian Olympic Committee. 8 July 2024. Retrieved 4 August 2024.
- ^ Trang, Beatrice (30 April 2019). "Spotlight: Natalya Diehm". The Bloom BMX. Retrieved 4 August 2024.
- ^ "Natalya Diehm | Profile". Australian Cycling Team.
- ^ "Bike Check with Natalya Diehm". The Bloom BMX. 10 May 2021. Retrieved 17 June 2021.
- ^ a b Vaughan, Roger (30 December 2019). "One phone call changed Diehm's BMX fate". The Canberra Times. Australian Community Media. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
- ^ "'So surreal' for first time Olympian". NewsComAu. 16 June 2021.
- ^ Jurss-Lewis, Tobias; Culliver, Paul (19 June 2021). "Natalya Diehm to pedal for a medal at Tokyo Olympics as Australia's first female freestyle BMX competitor". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
- ^ Finch-Penninger, Jamie (17 June 2021). "World champ Martin set to shine as Freestyle BMX debuts at Tokyo Olympics". SBS News. Special Broadcasting Service. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
- ^ "Australian Olympic Team for Tokyo 2021". The Roar. Retrieved 10 November 2021.
- ^ "'Absolute Australian grit': Freestyle BMX Olympian Diehm reveals secret injury that ended Games medal dream". ABC News. 7 August 2021. Retrieved 4 August 2024.
- ^ "AUS Olympic Team". 31 July 2024.
- ^ Pender, Kieran (31 July 2024). "'That's insane': Natalya Diehm wins first women's Olympic BMX medal for Australia". Retrieved 1 August 2024.
- ^ "Olympic Games Paris 2024: China's Yawen Deng wins women's BMX Freestyle". 31 July 2024. Retrieved 6 August 2024.