Double Olympic Champion Matt Richards Driven by Paris Pain in Pursuit of LA 2028 Gold
Matt Richards is doing everything in his power to avoid a repeat of his crushing disappointment of Paris 2024 where he missed 200m freestyle gold by 0.02secs.
Swimming out of lane one as David Popovici, Duncan Scott and Luke Hobson did battle in the centre lanes, Richards was on the brink of becoming the second straight Briton to win the title, three years after Tom Dean in Tokyo.
But Popovici’s final-50 momentum propelled him into the wall as he became the first Romanian man to win an Olympic title in the pool, 0.02 ahead of Richards in 1:44.72 to 1:44.74 with Hobson third and Scott fourth with the quartet separated by 0.17seds.
Matt Richards: Photo Courtesy: Morgan Harlow, Aquatics GB
Richards was certain gold had been in his grasp and described missing out by such a tiny margin as “excruciatingly frustrating.”
He went on to win an historic gold as the Great Britain 4×200 free relay squad retained the title they secured in Tokyo.
It was in Japan three years earlier that Richards came to prominence and since then, he’s amassed an extensive medal haul including the solo 200 free title amid three golds at the 2023 World Championships plus European crowns and Commonwealth medals.
However, he’d return all the silverware he won in the years between Tokyo and Paris 2024 if it meant he could’ve won individual gold at the latter.
“I want to be on the top of the podium in LA,” he said. “I don’t want to be second; I don’t want to be third. I don’t want to be off it. I want to be at the top of it.
“And so, there’s areas that require some trial and error and things that work, things that don’t. And I’d sacrifice every medal I won between Tokyo and Paris to have got gold in Paris rather than silver.
“And so now it’s about trying to make sure that I don’t have that same feeling again after LA.”
That would include the world title he won at Fukuoka 2023 where he led Dean home for a British 1-2. “You can’t do that in sports and how it works. I would never take anything away from myself from what I’ve done in that period. But I think after Paris there was a lot of pieces there that I learned from that I want to take away from and not make the same mistakes again. So that’s exactly what we’re doing.”
Paris & Glasgow Reflections
Richards was speaking at the European Championships in Paris where he won double gold in the men’s and mixed 4x200m freestyle relays.
However, he finished 16th in the 100m freestyle semis in 48.88, almost 1.5secs off his 47.45 British record, before withdrawing from the 200m.
He explained: “The 200 this end of the season has been a little bit tricky for me; it’s just not quite been firing. I put an okay swim together that first 4×200 on night one but off the back of that, I was hurting and it really stung me for the next couple of days.
Matt Richards: Photo Courtesy: Andrea Masini / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
“So, there’s a couple of bits and pieces there that we need to work on, but we ultimately made the decision to scratch that from this meet and focus on relays.”
The European Championships followed hot on the heels of the Commonwealth Games where the Team Wales swimmer was second in the 100m freestyle and shared silver over 200m with Team England’s James Guy.
Richards – coached by Ryan Livingstone at the Aquatics GB Manchester Performance Centre – reflected on the back-to-back competitions as “up and down.” While he was happy with his 100m freestyle performances in Scotland, the 200m stung and his Paris relay performance was still some away from where he wants to be.
The 23-year-old also had to contend with some health issues between Glasgow and Paris on top of not being in peak condition.
“I’ll always be the first one to try and stay as accountable as I can be but that’s not helped matters,” he said. “But the fact of the matter is I’m not in the shape that I’d like to be right now, especially on that 200. There’s pieces to the 100 that I need to make better, and we will. But the 200 is the main one where I think there’s a lot of pieces there that we want to work on, that we know we’re going to work on, and just need the time next season to do it now.”
Recognising “Phenomenal Swimming”
Richards looked on as Popovici won the100m freestyle where he led a trio of men who made history by all finishing in the 46-second range. The Romanian also won the 200m as he secured the three-peat freestyle double.
David Popovici: Photo Courtesy: Deepbluemedia
Leon Marchand became the sixth-fastest 200m freestyle swimmer in history, more than half a second quicker than the Welshman’s PB, when he led off the France relay quartet that won silver behind Great Britain.
“You’ve got to recognise it,” said Richards. “It’s phenomenal swimming. There’s some really fast swimming going on around the world at the minute, not just in my events but across all of them. It’s exciting for the sport, you know, it’s exciting to be in the mix of that.
“And right now I’m not in the shape that I’d like to be where I can be in that race, challenging to be in the finals and winning golds and getting down to those kind of those barriers that are being broken. But I will be when I need to be and that’s what I’m focusing on doing right now.”
