Matthew Richardson (cyclist)

Matthew Richardson (born 17 April 1999) is a track cyclist who represented Australia until August 2024 and Great Britain from September 2024 onwards. He competed in the men's keirin, individual sprint and team sprint at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. His most successful event was the team sprint, where the Australians came fourth.^[3][4] He also competed at the 2024 Summer Olympics, again in the keirin, individual sprint and team sprint.^[5] Here he placed second in the sprint and keirin, missing out on gold in both to Dutch rider Harrie Lavreysen. The Australian team also placed third in the team sprint.

In 2026, representing Great Britain at the UEC European Track Championships, he won the gold medal in the sprint competition, defeating Lavreysen in the final, the Dutchman's first defeat in seven years at major competition.

Richardson was born in Maidstone, Kent in the United Kingdom to English parents and moved to Australia for his father's work when he was nine years old. He grew up in Maidstone and then Warwick, Western Australia. As a result, he has both British and Australian citizenship.

As a teenager, Richardson competed in gymnastics and earned podium results at a national level. However, after suffering an elbow injury he turned his interest to cycling.^[6][7]

Richardson cycled for the Midland Cycling Club. He was invited to attend a 'come 'n' try' session and was recruited to the Western Australian Institute of Sport.

Three months before the 2019 World Championships, Richardson relocated to South Australia to join Cycling Australia's Podium Potential Academy. This move paid dividends as Richardson was selected to represent Australia in the team sprint. The team finished in sixth position and were edged out of the finals by eventual silver medallists, France.^[6]

At the 2020 UCI Track Cycling World Championships, Richardson won a bronze medal in the team sprint with Thomas Cornish and Nathan Hart. It was Australia's highest finish in this event at a World Championships in eight years.^[8]

Richardson competed at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, where he won gold medals in the team sprint event alongside Leigh Hoffman and Matthew Glaetzer^[9] and in the individual sprint event.^[10]

Richardson won three medals for Australia at the Paris 2024 Olympics; two silver medals in the keirin and the sprint, and a bronze in the team sprint. However, despite representing Australia, it was later revealed that Richardson had already been in discussions to join the Great Britain Cycling Team after the Olympics.^[11]

On 19 August, after the conclusion of the 2024 Olympics, it was announced that Richardson would be leaving the Australian cycling roster and would instead represent Great Britain, the country of his birth, after his application to switch allegiance was accepted by the UCI.^{[12][13][14][15]} This move attracted controversy amongst the Australian cycling community.^[11] It was later reported that AusCycling was considering whether it wanted to enforce a two-year non-competition order on Richardson, which would ban him from competing at international track cycling events until 2026.^[16] However, in a later statement, AusCycling shared that they would not be pursuing this as it had been deemed legally unenforceable.^[17]

Richardson's first event in Great Britain's colours was the 2024 UCI Track Champions League. At the first round in Paris he won both the sprint and the keirin, beating rival Harrie Lavreysen and earning him maximum points.^[18] At the end of the five rounds, he finished second overall, beaten by Lavreysen with a margin of 20 points.^[19]

In February 2025 Richardson competed at his first British National Track Championships. He won his first British national title in the individual sprint, beating reigning champion Peter Mitchell in the gold medal final.^[20] He also won team sprint gold alongside Lyall Craig, Niall Monks and Harry Ledingham-Horn.^[21] He completed the trilogy by winning the national keirin title on the final day of the championships.^[22]

Richardson's first official outing for the Great Britain team was the 2025 Nations Cup held in Konya, Turkey. He won gold in both the team sprint (with Ledingham-Horn and Harry Radford) and the individual sprint.^[23]

On 5 August, British Cycling announced that Richardson would be attempting to break the men's flying 200 m time trial world record in Konya on 14 August.^[24] He succeeded, becoming the first cyclist to break the nine-second barrier by setting a time of 8.941 seconds.^[25] He returned the following day and went even quicker, setting the record at 8.857 seconds.^[26][27][28]

At the 2025 Track Cycling World Championships in Santiago, Richardson, along with teammates Ledingham-Horn, Hamish Turnbull and Joseph Truman, clinched a silver medal in the team sprint.^[29] However, he failed to move past the quarter finals in the keirin, placing 16th overall.^[30] In the sprint, Richardson qualified fastest and progressed to the gold medal final, beating Nick Wammes, Kaiya Ota and former teammate Hoffman in the intermediate rounds. He was beaten by reigning champion Lavreysen in straight rides and took the silver medal overall.^[31]

At the 2026 European Championships in Konya, Richardson became the first British man to win the European sprint title, beating Lavreysen after taking the gold medal final to a deciding race.^[32] The following day he gained a second European title, this time in the keirin. Having won his qualifying and semi-final heats, he went on to launch a late attack in the final, taking the gold medal by 0.033 seconds over silver medallist Lavreysen.^[33]

Richardson's partner is fellow British track cyclist Emma Finucane.^[34]

• List of World Championship medalists in men's keirin
• List of Track Cycling Nations Cup medalists

• Matthew Richardson at UCI
• Matthew Richardson at Cycling Archives
• Matthew Richardson at CycleBase
• Matthew Richardson at Olympics.com
• Matthew Richardson at the Australian Olympic Committee
• Matthew Richardson at Olympedia
• Matthew Richardson at Commonwealth Games Australia
• Matthew Richardson at InterSportStats
• Matthew Richardson at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games