The 26-year-old made history at La Concorde by becoming the first Australian woman to win a BMX medal of any discipline with bronze in the BMX Freestyle final, three years after finishing fifth in Tokyo.

While the pressure of the occasion saw some of her rivals crash in their opening run, Natalya put down a superb score of 88.80 - which after a nervous wait in the hot-seat - would prove to be enough to secure a spot on the podium behind China’s Yawen Deng and American Perris Benegas.

“I don’t even know how to put it into words, it’s crazy,” Natalya said.

“It was definitely one of the most nerve-racking moments of my life. Coming down to the last rider, Hannah Roberts being one of my best friends and I know how good she is as a competitor, I didn’t want to wish bad on anyone, but I wanted that podium so bad and I can’t believe that it’s here.

“After Tokyo I didn’t see the light, I just had to keep pushing forward and I knew it wasn’t the way I wanted to go out.

“I wanted to go out on my terms where I went my hardest, not by injury, and to do this now is unbelievable, if you had asked me this two years ago I did not think it would happen.” 

Ironically, Natalya’s strategy wasn’t to ride so aggressively in her first run, instead to put down what would prove to be a medal-winning score.

“No, my first run, crazy enough, was supposed to be my safe run and my second one was to go harder which is why I pulled out the front flip, but I landed a bit flat on one of the ramps,” she said.

“That’s not the way I planned but it’s the way it worked.”

In making history, Natalya hopes to inspire other young girls in Australia to chase their dreams.

“I wanted this so bad,” she said.

“It’s going to be big for our sport in Australia, to inspire kids that dreams can come true.

“I’m sure there were tears from family and friends back home and I can’t thank them enough.”

In the Men’s event, reigning Olympic champion Logan Martin said it just wasn’t his day after both of his runs were marred by slip-ups to finish ninth.

“I’m a little disappointed, not in the fact that I didn’t walk away with a medal, I’m disappointed that I wasn’t able to pull my run,” he said.

“Every event I go to, big or small, I just want to land my runs and execute them well. It’s an internal thing for me, putting on my best performance in that 60 seconds, so I’m disappointed but life moves on and I’ll be OK.”

For Logan, it was a special moment having his wife and children in the crowd to cheer him on after they were unable to make it to Tokyo.

“It’s very special to have my friends and family in the crowd supporting me,” he said.

“I saw my daughter before and she was crying and that made me a bit sad but I tried my best. 

“I want to portray a good message to them that if you fall down you get back up, I didn’t get the outcome I wanted but I’ll keep going.”

Despite his own disappointment, Logan said he was thrilled for his teammate Natalya.

“I’m super stoked for Nat, the last few years at world cups and world championships she’s wanted to make a podium, and she’s done it at the biggest one ever.

“I’m super proud of her and it’s awesome that she’s done it at the Olympics.”

Reece Homfray