Matthew RICHARDSON

At the 2019 UCI Track Cycling World Championships, a 20-year-old Richardson competed in the team sprint event alongside future Olympians Nathan Hart and Patrick Constable. The trio finished sixth.

Richardson returned strongly in the same event alongside Nathan Hart and Thomas Cornish the following year. The trio secured a bronze medal in the team sprint, marking Australia's best finish in the event at the World Championships in eight years.

The impressive run of form earned Richardson an Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020 but the podium evaded him. He finished fourth in the team sprint and failed to reach the final in the individual sprint and keirin events.

The Olympic disappointment only fueled Richardson’s determination further. He went on to win gold medals at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in sprint and team sprint events. A few months later, he won a World Championships gold in the team sprint alongside a silver medal in the individual event.

Richardson won two more silvers at the 2023 World Championships. He finished second in the team sprint and bagged his first world medal in the individual keirin.

The Paris 2024 track cycling events were held at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome, the same place Richardson won his first world championships gold medal in 2022. He was determined to make his mark at the Summer Games and he did it in style.

The first of three Olympic medals came in his pet team sprint event. He clinched a bronze alongside Leigh Hoffman and Matthew Glaetzer before adding silver medals in the individual sprint and keirin events.

A few days later, Matthew Richardson switched his nationality from Australia to Great Britain, where he began working under the guidance of seven-time Olympic gold medallist Jason Kenny.