‘A lot of relief’: Australia’s unluckiest Olympian finally wins a medal

The two years before Tokyo alone would have been enough to send any cyclist into retirement. First, there was the physical and emotional toll of a thyroid cancer diagnosis. Then, after the surgery and treatment, came a torn calf. Then an oblique injury, and finally a bulging disc in his neck.

Despite it all, Matthew Glaetzer made the Australian team for a third Games in Japan, the ache for an elusive Olympic medal outweighing all the pain before it. But a medal did not come at the Izu Velodrome in August 2021. And with a history like Glaetzer’s – a wretched timeline of tormenting near-misses stretching back to his debut Games in 2012 – you’d forgive him for being done.

The sprint king, a three-time world champion and five-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist, was an Olympic fourth-place specialist. Always riding in the bronze-medal race; always losing. It happened four times in three Games: London 2012 (team sprint), Rio 2016 (team and individual sprints) and Tokyo 2020 (team sprint). The combined margin of defeat across those four events was 2.099 seconds.

But we’ve heard tales like this before. The ones where it’s the hope that kills you, but you press on anyway. Athletes are experts in the field, and Glaetzer more than most. He set himself a deadline of Paris 2024, and announced he would cut himself off after that, at almost 32 years old and with not much left to eke out of his body.

At the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome on Tuesday, right on cue, Glaetzer’s sprint team ended up in the bronze-medal race. A loss to France might have made him the Olympics movement’s unluckiest man. The mind struggles to think of any other athlete to have placed fourth five times, apart from perhaps Soviet sprinter Maria Itkina, who suffered the same fate across the 1956 and 1960 Games (and then added a fifth place in 1964).

This time, however, Glaetzer did not miss. Australia beat France (by 0.396 seconds), and he stood on the podium with a bronze medal around his neck, next to teammates Matthew Richardson and Leigh Hoffman.

Matthew Glaetzer finally wins that elusive medal.Credit: AP

“It was elation,” he said, before listing several other emotions. “It’s very special to finally win an Olympic medal. We were definitely aiming for better – we felt like we could have been in the gold [race].

“I’ve put up with a lot. I’ve experienced everything that you can experience throughout my career so far, and I know the boys wanted more – we all did. But through all the challenges that I’ve had, through getting through cancer and messing up my calf just before the Olympics, to wanting to almost give away the sport.

“Now to bring home a medal for Australia, it was a lot of relief. I’m just so proud of the team I’m a part of. Couldn’t have done it without them. We stuck together … we’ve done it for the Aussie teams before us. I’ve been part of a lot of them, and we just know how hard it is and the history behind it of us getting pipped every single time. We just didn’t want to live that again – I did not want to live that again.”

The team sprint was added to the Olympic program at Sydney 2000 where Australia claimed bronze. Since then – and despite strong pedigree – Australia’s men finished fourth at the five subsequent Games. Tuesday night could have marked a sixth in succession, but for a last-minute, risky order change for the final.

Relief for Matthew Glaetzer after the bronze-medal ride.Credit: AP

In the heat an hour earlier, Australia had lost valuable time when Glaetzer, riding as third man, struggled to catch second man Richardson in time for the changeover. It might have cost them a spot in the gold-medal race (the Netherlands beat Great Britain in world-record time).

“I felt a lot of pressure, personally, because I was the one who couldn’t catch up with the horsepower in front of me,” Glaetzer said. “We are playing with such thin margins, and to have the gap that I had to Richo just wasn’t what we needed for a good team time.

“I told the coach that if we try that again, I don’t think it was going to be the result we wanted. So the coach posed the change and I’m like, ‘Yep, that’s what we need to do’. So we rode positions that we haven’t been training in this whole Olympic cycle, in the one race that matters the most, and we absolutely ripped it.”

Glaetzer took Hoffman’s place out of the gates, then Hoffman followed and Richardson wrapped it up.

Matthew Glaetzer (right) celebrates bronze alongside teammate Matthew Richardson.Credit: Getty Images

It capped quite a session at the track for Australia, who, two days into the Paris program, have already ensured more success than in the entirety of an underwhelming Tokyo campaign remembered most for Alex Porter’s snapped handlebar in the men’s team pursuit qualifying. The eventual bronze in that event was the only medal.

Already, here, they are guaranteed at least two. The Australian men’s team pursuit quartet set up a gold medal ride-off with Great Britain by breaking the world record to defeat reigning champions Italy. Team GB beat Australia to gold in London and Rio.

Having already qualified fastest on Monday, Olympic medallists Sam Welsford and Kelland O’Brien combined with debutants Conor Leahy and Oliver Bleddyn to clock 4:40.730. It is the first time Australia have held the record in five years.

“To take on the Brits again, for me, it’s that redemption from the 2016 Olympics,” said Welsford, who rose in Rio. “It’s a really nice opportunity. It’s going to be a big ride tomorrow. The plan was just to get the job done, really. Ultimately, the goal is to win on the third … the world record is a massive bonus for us.”

Also on Tuesday, Australia’s women’s team pursuit qualified sixth-fastest in a national record.

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