Smug Olympic star Richardson laughs at AusCycling’s “yeah, you’re fired” lifetime ban

Australia’s Olympic star Matthew Richardson says he sleeps at night, despite the “noise” from Australia after his sudden defection to Great Britain.

Matthew Richardson had a perfect start to life in Team GB. Photo: X/British Cycling

Matthew Richardson, the Australian Olympic medal winning track cyclist who secretly defected to Great Britain after the Paris Olympics has ridiculed AusCycling’s lifetime ban and denied he has kept a bike and other Australian intellectual property.

Richardson hit out at the AusCycling review into his defection, saying Monday’s statement ‘’was a bit of a shock and I didn’t know it was coming”.

AusCycling officials, coaches and teammates, still smarting at being blindsided, could say the same about Richardson’s sudden about face to abandon his Adelaide base for Manchester just days after the Paris Olympics.

But on Wednesday morning Australian time, Richardson derided the review findings during a zoom call with journalists as being that of an organisation “keen to get one last final blow, a final word”.

AusCycling, the national body of Australian Cycling, has banned Richardson from wearing the green and gold again, after investigating his furtive move to quit Australia for Team GB after winning three medals at the Paris Olympics.

The review said Richardson had asked to take a custom bike, the bike’s handle bar, seat, pedals and his Olympic race suit to Great Britain, before announcing his decision, which represented an unacceptable risk to AusCycling’s intellectual property. Australia also wanted him to be banned from competition for two years, but such a request was legally unenforceable.

(L-R) Silver medalist Matthew Richardson and Bronze medalist Matthew Glaetzer of Team Australia celebrate after the Men's Keirin, Final for Gold on day sixteen of the Olympic Games Paris 2024. Picture: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

Richardson said on Tuesday: “Ultimately I had left (AusCycling) three months ago, I am not sure where the confusion has come from. It was pretty obvious that my wanting to ride for GB for the rest of my career that would mean I didn’t want to ride for Australia for the rest of my career.”

He added: “It’s like you leave your job and three months later they go ‘yeah, well you’re fired’. Well, it’s like I already left. I don’t really understand where you were going with that one, it was just words on a piece of paper really and it doesn’t really carry much weight for me.”

Richardson lived in England as a young child, relocating to Australia aged nine and enjoyed considerable investment in his cycling talents through various AusCycling programs including six years in the residential program at the Institute of Sport

The review found that Richardson had requested the world cycling body, Union Cyclist Internationale, delay official disclosure of his nationality change until after the Olympic Games, a request supported by British Cycling. He said he knew that the UCI couldn’t enforce an Australian desire to ban him from competition for two years,

“I knew a long time ago (the two year ban) would never be upheld, the UCI can’t enforce regulations on me that I haven’t signed for,’’ he said.

“Those words on a piece of paper don’t hold any weight, they (AusCycling) said they have to go back and look at that clause, which basically just admits they are going to have to change it or get rid of it or whatever because it clearly has no meaning.”

“I sleep well at night’’ said Richardson, saying he thought he had repaid Australia with a world championship and the three Olympic medals. Picture: Tim de Waele/Getty Images

The 25 year old insisted he had returned all of the Australian equipment, and stressed that the bike he had taken was an off the shelf Argon bike that was not custom made. He said taking the equipment was part of the subterfuge.

“If I had spoken to my coach and said I am going to spend six months in Europe until he end of the year but I am not going to bring any bike, he would have gone, ‘what are you doing then?’, that would be very strange.

So things came with me, that was how it went and everything has been returned.’’

Richardson said “I sleep well at night’’ saying he thought he had repaid Australia with a world championship and the three Olympic medals and noted “They have had their last final word and hopefully we can put it to bed and just enjoy riding in circles’’. He expressed a wish that in years to come he and AusCycling “can come to a sort of understanding’’.

Richardson competed for Great Britain in France last week and said hearing the announcer call his name representing Great Britain was “a special moment’’, so much so, he wanted to go through the sprint rounds so he could hear it again and again.

But he has hinted that the past few months have not been entirely stress-free, with the challenges of finding a place to live and establishing himself in a new country.