Matt Richardson may have become public enemy number one in Australian cycling when he decamped to ride for the country of his birth — but the Commonwealth’s fastest man on two wheels reckons it’s all had ‘zero effect’ on him.
And if the flyer now in Team England colours thinks there’s any lingering animosity towards him, having won two titles in the green-and-gold at the last Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, he promises to just use it as ‘fuel’ for more success.
The 27-year-old, who was born in the English town of Maidstone but moved to Perth at nine and went on to carve out a brilliant track career for Australia, caused a sensation by switching allegiance straight after winning two silvers and a bronze at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
He received a life ban for competing for Australia, but despite early bitter criticism back in the country that honed his cycling talent, he’s since carved out a strikingly impressive career in GB and England skinsuits.
‘I tried to block out all the negativity, and all the noise,’ Richardson shrugs when recalling the initial furore surrounding his ‘defection’.
‘I experienced the way they decided to handle it at the time, and moved on as quickly as I could.
Matt Richardson (pictured) has defected from Australia to represent Great Britain
Richardson (pictured) has received widespread public backlash for his decision – but has revealed it has ‘zero effect’ on him
The 27-year-old (pictured with his partner) is looking to win gold at the Commonwealth Games
‘Ultimately, it has zero effect on me. If, for some reason, the British public didn’t take it well, that wouldn’t have been very good — but it wasn’t the case.’
Richardson’s still battling to be the top sprinter in the world, having won silver at last year’s worlds behind only the great Harrie Lavreysen and actually having achieved the unthinkable, defeating the flying Dutchman in the sprint at February’s European Championships
He’s twice cracked the flying 200m world record, becoming the first cyclist under nine seconds, and has made it clear he believes his advances have been down to his recent cycling education in the UK.
As he famously put it in an interview with the BBC – and a mite woundingly for his old paymasters: ‘A way I can probably describe it is the Australian programme is like high school, and the British programme is like Hogwarts.’
‘We fly with more bikes, and more equipment, anything we need to perform at our absolute best at a given race,’ he says.
‘I remember doing World Cups for Australia, and I would only fly over with my race bike. I fly to races now with about four or five bikes. These things really make a difference, when a final comes down to a-thousandth-of-a-second.’
Richardson’s main rival in Glasgow could be former Australian teammate Leigh Hoffman, who’s admitted his old mate’s presence in the England team spices things up for the track meet at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome.
‘The Aussies want me to smash him, the Brits want him to smash me and that’s the way it goes,’ Hoffman said at the team announcement in Brisbane.
‘Seeing him in GB colours probably does bring out a bit more fire in me.’
That’s all grist to Richardson’s mill. ‘I use it as fuel,’ he said. ‘I always find motivation in something, whether it’s trying to hunt someone down, trying to be better than someone, or trying to stay better than other people.’
One advantage Hoffman could have is that Richardson will be in Japan racing, and must hot foot it to Glasgow so close to race day that he’s not even sure which of the four sprint disciplines he’ll yet compete in.
‘If I was to race in the team sprint, I’d fly in on the day and literally go straight to the velodrome and race,’ he explained, admitting it still might be possible to do the team sprint, sprint, keirin and kilo.
