Australian Olympian joins British cycling team
‘It is with a sense of excitement and renewal that I announce I have joined the Great British cycling team’
Daily Tribune‘It is with a sense of excitement and renewal that I announce I have joined the Great British cycling team’
Matt Richardson
AFP/EMMANUEL DUNAND
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Matt Richardson is set to join the British cycling team just weeks after winning three Olympic medals for Australia.
The 25-year-old won silver in the individual sprint and keirin as well as bronze in the team sprint at the Paris Games.
Richardson was born in England before moving to Western Australia when he was nine and is returning to the United Kingdom to live permanently having retained dual citizenship.
“I have made the decision to pack up my entire life and move halfway across the world to begin the next chapter in my cycling career,” said Richardson, whose nationality switch has been approved by cycling’s governing body the Union Cycliste Internationale.
“It is with a sense of excitement and renewal that I announce I have joined the Great British cycling team.”
“Switching nationality was a difficult decision and not one I took lightly. It was a personal choice, made after careful consideration of my career and future.”
Jesse Korf, the executive general manager of performance for AusCycling, said the move had come as a “surprise” and it was “disappointing that Richardson would be leaving a program that had delivered great personal and national success.”
Richardson was a double gold medal winner at the 2022 Commonwealth Games and has five world championship medals, including gold in the 2022 team sprint.
