Evy Leibfarth grew up on the rivers of North Carolina.

“I was two years old and my parents would take me down little rivers on their laps in kayaks," Leibfarth told NBCOlympics.com in an exclusive interview.

Her parents met as rafting guides and with the Nantahala Outdoor Center just around the corner, the rapids were her second home. That's where the dream all started when Leibfarth was 8 years old.

"I remember we had an Olympics day at the Nantahala Outdoor Center where they were showing the kayaking from London 2012," Leibfarth said, "and I remember watching it and thinking, 'Wow, I want to be out there.'"

That dream became reality at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, when Leibfarth made her first Olympic appearance. As a 17-year-old, she became the youngest paddler in U.S. Olympic history. But the podium was still far off as Leibfarth finished 12th in the K-1 and 18th in the C-1 in Tokyo.

Since then, her results have steadily improved. Her best finish prior to Paris came at the 2023 World Championships when she won bronze in the C-1.

Leibfarth wasn't expecting to match her high-water mark in the Olympics. But on Thursday in Paris — with the world watching — Leibfarth again won the bronze medal in the C-1.

Having posted the 12th best time in the semifinal, Leibfarth was the last and final qualifier to go through and, subsequently, she was the first paddler down the course in the final. 

Liebfarth posted a 109.95 — a blistering 7.63 seconds faster than her qualifying time. Then, she had to wait as 11 other paddlers made their way down the course to see if her time would hold. 

“I think, the first few, it was really easy because I just didn’t think I was going to medal," said Leibfarth, "and I was really okay with that, I had a good effort, I was proud of myself."

Her competitors kept crossing the finish line. Her time kept holding in medal position.

“As more and more girls started coming down and I was still in the medal positions I started freaking out a little bit," said Leibfarth. "It was agonizing. It’s kind of hard in my sport because all the girls out there are my friends also. So, I really wanted everyone coming down to have the run of their life, because it’s girls I’ve been racing with my whole life."

Her emotions and adrenaline picking up with every paddler, Leibfarth could barely remember how she felt as the competition flowed on. 

“It’s hard to be in that potential medal spot and keep watching everyone go down," said Leibfarth, "it’s just a mix of so many emotions. I think I have the worst poker face on the planet, so I was just sobbing through most of it with everything going on.”

With one paddler left — Czechia's Gabriela Satkova, who posted a brisk 105.55 in qualifying — Leibfarth was still hanging on to a bronze medal. 

"There’s a really hard move towards the top of the course that I lost a lot of time at," said Leibfarth. "I messed it up and [Satkova] just pinned it perfectly. So, watching her come down I just assumed she was going to have a medal, and she was the last one to go ... All of a sudden I had a medal and I was like, 'What is happening?'"

Leibfarth's dad serves as her coach. He was there, right by his daughter's side, as times rolled in for the rest of the fleet. 

The person that inspired her love of the sport, that navigated her down the rivers of North Carolina as a baby, was the first person on her mind when she officially became an Olympic medalist. 

When it happened, he ran up to me and it was everything. It’s just as much his medal as it is mine.

“Everything was going through my head," Leibfarth continued. "I didn’t really believe it at first. I ran up to everyone and I saw my dad and I kept thinking the results were going to change.”

The results did not change. Leibfarth cemented herself in American canoe slalom history. Her bronze marks the United States' first medal in canoe slalom since Athens 2004 — about seven months after Leibfarth was born.