BMX Rider
Logan Martin
Logan Martin is an Australian BMX park rider from the Gold Coast who won the first Olympic BMX freestyle gold at Tokyo 2020 and holds multiple world titles.
Updated 4 min read800 words
Logan Martin is an Australian BMX park rider from the Gold Coast, Queensland. He won the first ever Olympic BMX freestyle men's gold medal at the Tokyo 2020 Games, held in 2021, and has won multiple UCI world titles and X Games medals. He is the most successful contest park rider of his generation and the most prominent BMX freestyle rider Australia has produced.
Early life and background
Martin was born in 1993 and grew up in Logan, south of Brisbane in Queensland, before later moving to the Gold Coast. He started riding BMX as a child at local skateparks. Australia has a long BMX history in both racing and freestyle, and the Queensland park scene in particular produced a number of strong riders in the 2000s and 2010s.
He showed early talent for big air tricks and progressed quickly through local and national contests. By his late teens he was travelling overseas for competitions and getting attention from international brands and contest organisers. He rides for the bike brand Hyper, which makes his signature frame, among other sponsors.
Career
Martin broke through on the international contest circuit in the early to mid 2010s. He became a regular winner at events such as FISE and the X Games, where he won park gold more than once and collected further medals across the decade. His consistency in finals marked him out even among riders with bigger single tricks.
When the UCI launched a BMX freestyle park world championship in 2017, Martin won the first edition, becoming the sport's first official world champion in the discipline. He went on to win the world title again in later years.
The Olympics became the main focus of his career once BMX freestyle was confirmed for the Tokyo 2020 programme. Martin built a full concrete skatepark in his backyard on the Gold Coast so that he could train without relying on public parks, a decision that proved valuable when pandemic restrictions closed facilities around the world. At the Games in Tokyo in 2021, he put down a clean, high-scoring first run in the final that nobody else could match, and he became the first men's Olympic champion in BMX freestyle.
Martin continued to compete after Tokyo, winning further world championship and major contest titles. He also competed at the Paris 2024 Olympics, where he reached the final but did not finish on the podium.
Riding style
Martin's riding is built on big air and flawless execution. His runs are packed with high backflip variations, flairs, 360s with bar and whip combinations and tailwhip variations, often landed on transfers between separate ramps.
What separates him in a contest is consistency. Park judging rewards difficulty, height, variety and clean landings, and Martin rarely puts a foot down. He builds runs that use the entire course, hits every obstacle with speed and keeps his trick selection varied from start to finish. His technique in the air is tidy, with the bike held straight and every rotation finished before landing.
He is also known for a professional, methodical approach to training. The backyard park, careful run planning and a focus on repetition reflect the way BMX freestyle has shifted towards a structured, Olympic-style sporting discipline.
Video parts and notable moments
Martin's career has been defined more by contest results than by video parts, which is common among park riders of his generation. Key moments include:
- Multiple X Games park medals, including gold, across the 2010s and into the 2020s.
- Winning the first UCI BMX freestyle park world championship in 2017, and further world titles in later years.
- Building a private concrete skatepark on the Gold Coast to prepare for the Olympics.
- Winning the first Olympic BMX freestyle men's gold medal at Tokyo 2020, held in 2021.
- Competing at the Paris 2024 Olympics as the defending champion.
Legacy and influence
Martin is the face of BMX freestyle at the Olympics. His Tokyo gold medal was the first moment many people outside the sport saw BMX freestyle, and his clean, controlled approach became the template for how Olympic park riding is judged and ridden.
In Australia, his success brought mainstream attention to BMX in a country better known for its racing heritage. He is one of the few freestyle riders to become a widely recognised sporting name there, and his win gave a boost to park riding and facility building across the country.
Within the sport, his career shows how contest BMX has changed: from a culture built on video parts and jams to a structured international circuit with world championships and Olympic qualification. Martin was among the first to treat it that way and among the most successful at doing so.
Related
Frequently asked questions about Logan Martin
Did Logan Martin win Olympic gold?
Yes. He won the first ever Olympic BMX freestyle park gold medal for men at the Tokyo 2020 Games, which were held in 2021 because of the pandemic.
How many world titles does Logan Martin have?
He has won the UCI BMX freestyle park world title more than once, starting with the first edition in 2017. The exact count depends on the year you check.
Where does Logan Martin train?
He is based on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, where he built a full concrete skatepark in his own backyard to train for the Olympics.
Related articles
Olympic BMX freestyle
Olympic BMX freestyle is the judged park event added to the Olympic Games for Tokyo 2020, where riders perform two timed runs on a purpose-built course.
4 min readUCI BMX World Championships
The UCI BMX World Championships award the rainbow jersey in BMX racing, with freestyle park and flatland titles decided at the UCI Urban Cycling Worlds.
4 min readX Games
The X Games is ESPN's annual action sports event, running since 1995, that brought BMX vert, street, park and dirt contests to a mainstream TV audience.
4 min readFISE
FISE is a large action sports festival held in Montpellier, France, since 1997, with BMX park and flatland contests that later became UCI World Cup rounds.
3 min readPark
Park BMX is the discipline of riding skateparks, linking airs and tricks across ramps, bowls and box jumps, and is the format used in most major contests.
4 min readBMX in Australia
BMX in Australia has thrived since the late 1970s, with world and Olympic success in racing, a dense skatepark network and Logan Martin's Olympic gold in 2021.
5 min read