Matt Richards on conflicting emotions over the Olympic medal, Pan Zhanle and his “fantastic” wedding day
Matt Richards sits in his new home in Manchester reflecting on a memorable few months in which he added gold and silver to his Olympic medal haul, got married and moved from England’s south to the north.
The 21-year-old joined Tom Dean, James Guy And Duncan Scott on his world debut in Tokyo in 2021 when Great Britain won gold in the 4×200 freestyle relay.
No four individuals had won relay gold medals together at two different Olympic Games the quartet reunited in Paris for a historic victory.
Tom Dean, Matthew Richards, Duncan Scott & James Guy: Photo courtesy: Deepbluemedia
Add to that second in the individual 200 free and the Welshman has won two golds and silver at two Olympic Games – how does that sound?
“It would have been more fun if I could say it was three times gold!” Richards told Swimming World.
“Again: it’s a dream come true. If you had offered me that ten years ago, I would have bitten off your hand. I’m only 21 – I plan on continuing with it for a long time, I don’t see myself leaving the sport for at least another ten years. So there’s a lot more I still want to achieve, there’s a lot more I still want to do.
“I’m in a great place and I love the sport, I enjoy it, I learn new things every day and from the Olympics I will have to learn how to finish well on the wall. think!”
The conflicting emotions of Olympic silver
Richards qualified for the individual final in seventh place, eliminating him from the final in lane one.
Third in the final corner there was no choice between Richards, teammate Scott, David Popovici And Luke Hobson of the US reaching the last meters.
Indeed, it looked like Richards was on the brink of victory, but Popovici came through perfectly as he became the first Romanian man to win an Olympic swimming title.
He finished 0.02 ahead of Richards and Hobson was third, one place ahead of Tokyo silver medalist Scott, with 0.15 separating the first four men at home.
Matt Richards: Photo courtesy: Andrea Masini / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
With races still to go, he put all his emotions – good and bad – aside and focused on his next event.
It’s something he’s still coming to terms with and acknowledges it’s all part of the “swings and roundabouts” of elite sport, having won the 2023 world title by 0.02 ahead of teammate Dean.
“I’m still processing it now, both the good and the bad parts of it,” he said.
“It’s something that takes time to get your head around and emotionally understand how you feel about that type of race.
“On the one hand you’ve won an Olympic silver medal, it’s a huge achievement, it’s fantastic, but on the other hand you can’t help but feel like you’ve lost the gold, especially when the margin is so small .
“And that is something that you have to process and work through, but that is sport, that is top sport.”
Pan Zhanle and the 100 Free That “Didn’t Quite Click”
Richards also competed in the 100 free in Paris, a year after setting a British record of 47.45 on his way to fifth place at the World Championships in Fukuoka.
Kyle Chalmers won the world title in 2023 in 47.15 for Jack Alexey (47.31) and Maxime Grousset who took bronze by the narrowest of margins in 47.42, 0.01 ahead of Pan Zhanle and 0.03 ahead of Richards.
At the Asian Games in September that year, Pan broke the 47-second barrier in 46.97, 0.11 less than Popovici’s WR of 46.86.
So the Chinese swimmer became the fastest man in history when he opened the 4×100 freestyle relay at the Doha World Championships in 46.80.
Come to Paris and he cut a huge 0.40 of that standard in as much as 46.40.
It was the biggest drop in the world record at the event since 1976, when South Africa Jonty Skinner fell .55 off American’s goal Jim Montgomery.
Pan’s performance provoked a range of reactions in the swimming world and beyond, from awe to astonishment to outright skepticism.
Questions were asked and fingers were pointed following news that emerged in April that 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for the banned performance-enhancing drug trimetazidine during a training camp in early 2021.
Pan Zhanle: Photo courtesy of: Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia/Insidefoto
The swimmers were cleared by the China Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA) as a case of environmental contamination, and the World Anti-Doping Agency agreed.
Chalmers, who was 1.08 seconds behind Pan in second place, and bronze medalist Popovici both congratulated the new world record holder at his eye-rolling time, stating that they felt it was done fairly.
Richards described it as ‘fantastic’ and ‘incredible to watch’. On whether he could understand the controversy, he added:
“It’s a difficult one. Personally, it’s not something I would like to comment on: I’m very happy – I’m going to compete and race people, no matter what’s happening in the media, no matter what controversies other people are talking about, it’s not my place to comment there to give up: my job is to come in and race people.
“If they are in the race, then the powers that be have determined that they should be in the race, and as far as I’m concerned that means I have to race against them.
“I had a drug test this morning. I know I’m clean and I have to trust that everyone else in that race is clean too and get in and race with them regardless of what the media says.
Richards’ focus is instead on improving his 100 free, in which he finished sixth in his Olympic semi-final and 12e general in 48.09.
That followed fourth place at the world championships in Doha, albeit unsettled, in 47.82, 0.04 out Nandor Nemeth in third place.
Now him and coach Ryan Livingstone trying to determine what didn’t work and putting the pieces back together.
“I wasn’t happy with my 100 at all last season,” Richards said. “It just didn’t quite click. We’ve now had time to go away and find out why that was the case and what we can do to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
“From my personal perspective, I still feel like I underperformed in that area. I think I had a lot more to offer at that event and it didn’t quite work out last year. And that’s fine: we can learn from that and move forward.”
A “fantastic” wedding day and a move from Millfield to Manchester
Shortly after returning from the French capital, Richards married his fiancée Emily Groot in rural Herefordshire.
Richards said:
“It was great, it was a fantastic day. I don’t think it’s often that people can say at the end of their wedding day that nothing went wrong: the whole day just went according to plan, there was nothing that we would have changed or adjusted.
“It was a really special day: we now have all the photos back, so it was fun to look through.”
The pair have moved from Millfield to Manchester after coach Livingstone took on a new role Aquatics GB Manchester Performance Center head coach.
Both are part of Livingstone’s training group, along with Guy, who is returning to his roots in the North West.
Although there are no plans to go to the short track worlds in Budapest, watching the World Cup series made him long for competition.
He will do private stand-ups before a public meeting in December.
But for Richards, life in Manchester is good.
“I absolutely love it here now, the city is fantastic, there is so much more for us to do and we have a really nice group of people we train with.
“(It’s) a fantastic facility – I think they’ve just spent 30 million renovating the pool so it literally feels like we’ve got brand new facilities, which is great.”
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