The rising son of British swimming, Matt Richards stands ready to do ‘amazing things’ at Paris 2024.
The 21-year-old is a leading member of the 30-strong pool swimming squad selected by Team GB for the Games, which open on July 26.
Richards has hit qualifying standards in six events, meaning he could race 15 times in nine days in pursuit of a glut of gold at the Games.
He went to Tokyo as a wide-eyed teenager, gilded with Olympic relay gold at the first attempt and unable to resist giggling at an infamous Claire Balding innuendo. Now Richards heads to Paris engaged to be married and a fully-fledged freestyle powerhouse, the fastest man in the world this year over 200 metres.
“Fundamentally, I’m just excited to race,” said Richards. “You could argue there’s some pressure on me now but I kind of don’t feel it.
“I’m just doing it for me, I’m doing what I love. Pressure is part and parcel of doing a good job of what I love.
“People are always going to have expectations but I know I’m in a good place physically and mentally and I can go and do some amazing things.”
Richards is one of over 1,000 elite athletes on UK Sport’s National Lottery-funded World Class Programme, allowing them to train full time, have access to the world’s best coaches and benefit from pioneering medical support – this is vital for their pathway to the Paris 2024 Games.
After reaching the pinnacle of his sport in 2021, he hit rock bottom a year later, finishing 30th at the World Championships.
“I was going so far backwards, my times were dreadful compared to where they were before,” he said. “It was really tough, really hard.
“I didn’t really understand what was going on. I needed a big step back, to reinvent myself and work out why I was no longer at my best.
“It took some hard conversations with the people around me and my loved ones to figure all of that out.”
Richards decided to switch training bases, now working under Ryan Livingstone at Millfield School. Within a year, he rose from 30th to be crowned world champion in the 200m freestyle.
“I wasn’t enjoying what I was doing,” said Richards. “I didn’t enjoy the kind of training I was doing. It didn’t work, I was going through the motions in a style of training I didn’t like.
“It made me fall out of love with the sport at the time. I swim best when I’m happy and enjoying what I’m doing and I needed to find a way to do that.
“I think that whole period stands me in good stead for the future. To be able to learn from that year, understand where it went wrong and get back on the horse, it’s so valuable. I wouldn’t change that year for the world, I’d keep the lessons I learned from it.”
Sportsbeat 2024