Paris Olympics 2024: BMX champion Logan Martin's equipment and wallet gets stolen before title defence
Paris Olympics: BMX champion Logan Martin's equipment and wallet gets stolen
With the Paris Olympics set to kick off on Friday (Jul26), Australian BMX freestyle champion Logan Martin has encountered an unfortunate incident. As he preparesto defend his Olympic title, Martin lost his equipment and wallet as thieves broke into the team's van in Brussels, Belgium. The Olympic medallist has described the incident as a"crazy start" to his title defence.
On Wednesday (Jul24), Martin shared videos on Instagram showcasingthe van's passenger side window smashed whereaspolice officers were also seen talking with a member of the Australian team to enquire more about the mishap.
'What a crazy start'
Martin wrote on his Instagram post, "Our van got broken into last night. Luckily my bikes weren't in there, although my bike bags were in there with some things in it. What a crazy start to the trip. Our van got broken into overnight. Luckily most of our stuff was in our room and we managed to recover a lot of it too. I lost my wallet, backpack and a few other things but overall it didn’t end up being too bad. It’s unfortunate when people feel the need to do things like this."
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Martin and his teammates, however,later found some of their stolen bags near a bench courtesy ofthe identification tags on them. Nonetheless, the culprits had completely trashed the contents kept inside the bag as the Aussie championwould find his gloves as well as other equipmentson the ground near the bench.
The incident is a big setback for Martin and his team ahead of the showpiece event. Notably, the BMX cycling event will commencewith the quarterfinals on Aug1 and conclude onAug3. BMX freestyle came into the picture in the Games for the first time in Tokyo 2020, where Martin created history by winning gold. The 30-year-old will be eager to replicate the same this time around.