Matthew Richardson, who won Commonwealth gold for Australia at the London Olympic velodrome, has said he now dreams of lifting his first major cycling crown in British colors on the same track.
The sprinter, who caused such a furore by switching his allegiance to his homeland, the United Kingdom, after the Paris Olympics, where he won three medals for Australia, is preparing for an emotional weekend as a ‘home’ runner for GB in the UCI two-day final. Champions League event in front of family and friends.
Richardson told AAP on Wednesday that after the initial flurry of negative headlines about his “defection” to Team GB, he now felt half of the messages supported his move.
And locked in a Champions League battle royal with Olympic champion Harrie Lavreysen, the flying Dutchman who pipped him to gold at the Paris Games ahead of this weekend’s final, Richardson explained his excitement about returning to the velodrome from Lee Valley with a new loyalty to the national team.
Asked if he felt it would be a very different feeling to winning Commonwealth sprint gold there two years ago if he prevailed in the Champions League sprint series for the second time on the second day of competition on Sunday, the 25-year-old said: “Yeah, that’s the feeling I’m chasing, for sure.”
“I’ve always thought, ‘What if I beat the communists when I was English?’ “What if I had won the Champions League that first year when I was British?” What a crazy feeling, what a special moment that would have been?
Matthew Richardson, who won Commonwealth gold for Australia at the London Olympic velodrome, wants to win in British colors on the same track.
The cycling star says that half of the messages he sees about his dropout are positive
‘So that’s the feeling I’m chasing. I’m only five points behind (Lavreysen in the Champions League sprint classification) and everything is at stake.
“I’m preparing like I would for any other race, but it would be amazing to win, like all the moments I’ve thought about in the past.”
Richardson, a dual national, honed his cycling career in Perth after moving with his family from the English city of Maidstone when he was nine. Lee Valley is about 60km from his birthplace, so Richardson considers it almost his “home track”.
“I don’t think it feels that strange,” he shrugged and asked how different he might feel from his Commonwealth heroics in 2022, when he claimed double gold in Australian Cycling’s sprint and team sprint which, enraged for his change, he has now imposed a lifetime ban.
“I think the cheers will be louder every time I race in that velodrome in London. I have grandparents, cousins, uncles and family, friends who come to watch, a lot of support, but I always have that when I go to race in London.
“So the contrast with the communists will feel more or less the same from the level of family support, but hopefully the cheering will be a little louder.”
Richardson caused outrage in Australia by his decision to defect and compete for Great Britain.
When asked how he had been dealing with the negative publicity and social media backlash he had received since his post-Paris move was announced, he shrugged: “I mean, I’m pretty used to it by now.”
“I think it’s interesting, a lot of the comments now have people defending me. I felt at first, when I first made the change, that there was a lot of negativity, whereas now it’s a real 50-50 split, of people saying something stupid and then someone backs it up with facts or just a defense.
‘But I would say it was almost like ‘rinse and repeat’ from the first time I faced it. Even though they mentioned it again, it’s the same noise as the first time.’
AusCycling has banned Richardson for life from representing Australia, citing his conduct before defecting, including withholding information about his move and requesting to take ownership of AusCycling to Britain.
Last week, Richardson said news who thinks some of the criticism he has received has been unfair.
“I think the attention given to me has been quite unfair. I’m not the first to compete for another country after representing Australia, but because of my success, I’ve gotten a higher profile,” Richardson told inews.
‘I am very grateful to AusCycling for their support when I was riding for them. I have never attacked them and only spoke about them positively.
‘It’s not about having a future that I didn’t have in the Adelaide program as I’m happy with what I’ve achieved.
“But there is nothing that makes me doubt my decision, this is something I have wanted to do since I started competing.”