Natalya Diehm is ready to show what she can do at an Olympics with two fully-functioning knees.
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After her brutal Olympic debut in Tokyo, when she suffered another anterior cruciate ligament rupture just a fortnight from competition, the BMX freestyle cyclist is brimming with confidence.
The 26-year-old still managed fifth at Tokyo and has not needed surgery since late 2022.
That is significant, given Diehm has needed five reconstructions on her right knee.
Since Tokyo, she had two of those recos, plus two operations on her left shoulder.
"Usually it goes left-and-right, left-and-right, but I've had five on the same knee and then six surgeries," she said.
"Obviously that right knee is never going to be the same as the left, there's always going to be a little bit of pain that comes with that, just because of the cartilage and the amount of surgeries I've had.
"But I'm feeling really strong, we're worked hard to get it stable.
"I'm probably the fittest and strongest that I've been. I can only trust in the hard work I've done. I definitely have the potential to get a podium spot."
In the wake of Tokyo, Diehm realised that was not the way she wanted her career to end. There was no way she would pass up trying to compete in Paris.
"I didn't want that to be my ending. I consider myself a very strong person mentally and physically - that's not the way I wanted to go out, I didn't want to be beaten by fear," she said.
"So I made it my mission to work as hard as I can."
The reality of what she has achieved by being at the Olympics again dawned on Diehm a few days ago.
"I was on social media, seeing first-time Olympians, how excited they are, they can't wait to get their tattoo," she said.
"Then I looked down - I have mine on my arm - you can quite easily forget that it's there.
"I looked at that it just brought back the meaning of what it is to be an Olympian."
Diehm's resilience is deeply set. It was rare for a woman to be in freestyle BMX when she was younger and that became her inspiration
"I've always wanted to be the person that I wanted to look up to, when I was growing up," she said.
"So to be that now, and hear people say that I inspire them or I got them into the sport ... it's a privilege and I'm very proud to be in this position."
The freestyle competition will be run on July 30-31 at Place de la Concorde.
Australian Associated Press
