- He became the first Australian to win a gold medal in BMX.
- Victory dedicated to her brother who suffered a terrible trauma in sport.
- He let out his emotions with several expletives, something that Karl loved.
Australian BMX gold medal winner Saya Sakakibara became an instant Aussie icon on Saturday morning with her tearful, swearing celebrations in Paris – and Channel 9 star Karl Stefanovic completely lost his mind live on air.
Three years after suffering a devastating crash at the Tokyo Games that left her carried off on a stretcher, the 24-year-old Gold Coast cyclist made an emotional return to form at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines circuit on Saturday morning.
As his family looked on, including his brother Kai, who suffered a life-changing brain injury at a 2020 World Cup race at Bathurst, Sakakibara delivered the performance of his career.
She became the first Australian BMX racer to win Olympic gold.
“Every setback I had from the moment I got going made me think I was going to give it another shot,” Sakakibara said after the race.
“I had that in mind. I wanted it, I wanted it. I knew it came down to a split second and all I had to do was go… and I did!” he said.
An emotional Sakakibara dedicated the win to her brother Kai, who suffered a brain injury in the sport in 2020.
During his celebrations, Sakakibara dropped several f-bombs to celebrate the historic victory.
It was a very emotional experience for the newly awarded gold medallist and a moment that Channel 9 star Brooke Boney mentioned in a later interview.
“I think we need to let you go, but I just wanted you to know that we don’t mind you swearing a few times now and then,” Boney said.
So Sakakibara took the opportunity, leaned into the microphone and yelled, “Come on, fuck!”
“That’s the trifecta, is that the third one?” co-host Sarah Abo asked.
Sakakibara was headless in the final, leading from start to finish in a dominant display.
Karl Stefanovic laughed out loud at Sakakibara’s swearing and said she had earned a passing grade.
Stefanovic was left roaring with laughter, struggling to speak between fits of giggles as he firmly approved of Sakakibara’s F-bombs.
“She just tripled her bet, not the double-double that comes in pool and then she tripled her bet,” he laughed.
“That should be on a t-shirt, let’s go, let’s forgive her.”
“You know how much I love to swear, but she has license. She has all the license in the world.”
Earlier this week, Sakakibara was diagnosed with COVID, putting his ability to compete, let alone win, in doubt.
‘Since the beginning of this week I had COVID and I was like, ‘I can’t believe this.’
“But I just wanted to make sure it was a golden Olympic moment.
‘Either way, it was going to end in tears, and I wanted to make sure they were happy tears.’