SA Olympian Matthew Glaetzer talks about the lucky charm that made Olympic dream come true

After 12 long years, three fruitless Olympics and a shock of heartbreaking hurdles, an Adelaide athlete finally made his podium dream come true with the help from his lucky charm.

When cycling champ Matthew Glaetzer triumphed in Paris last week (Aug 7) – and finally clinched his elusive medal after three barren Olympic campaigns spanning 12 long, tough years – he was wearing a “lucky charm” for the first time.

The 31-year-old South Australian, who had finished a heartbreaking fourth in the team sprint in London, Rio and Tokyo, slipped a silicone version of his wedding ring on his finger – for better grip – and carried the love of his wife of 18 months onto the French track.

With Nikki cheering him on at the French velodrome, the big-hearted athlete – who fought thyroid cancer and then overcame a career-threatening injury on the way to his Olympic dream – finally found himself standing proudly on the podium after racing to victory with his Aussie allies in the team sprint’s bronze medal showdown.

Matthew Glaetzer of Team Australia poses on the podium after the Men's Team Sprint – Finals. Picture: by Tim de Waele.

“I’d never raced in the Olympics with a wedding ring before until this Olympics, so it turned out to be my lucky charm,” says Glaetzer, who delighted the Paris crowd by claiming his second bronze medal with a Steve Bradbury-style, last-man-standing finish in the keirin.

“I was just loving that I could enjoy it with Nikki and have her there with me. My parents and older brother, Lindsay, were in Rio but I have always for my whole career wanted to share it with my someone special and that happened in Paris with Nikki being there.”

A green-and-gold-clad Nikki was also trackside for Glaetzer’s unlikely second bronze, which saw him trailing in last position before the bulk of the peloton tumbled out of contention and he raced to claim the prize.

“It went from ‘oh no, I haven’t got a medal’ to ‘what just happened, I’m in shock, I’ve now won a bronze’. The first thing I thought was ‘I just did a Bradbury’,” says Glaetzer, who was caught on camera mouthing those words as he crossed the finish line.

“It was for bronze but it felt like a win for me to win an individual medal. It was just sheer elation, I just wanted to find my wife and take in that crazy moment that just happened.

“I rode really well to get to the final, the final ride wasn’t quite the execution I was hoping for but I put myself in the race and stayed upright and to win you have to get across the line and I did that.”

Glaetzer celebrates his bronze medal on the podium of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Picture: Emmanuel DUNAND / AFP.

Glaetzer’s very own French Revolution was full of “shock and excitement ... I’d achieved that one goal that I’d set out to do” – but it almost didn’t happen.

Three years ago, a dejected Glaetzer arrived home empty-handed from Tokyo’s Covid-affected Games, undecided about whether he could continue with his cycling career.

With his Aussie team again missing out on a podium place for the third Olympics in a row, he found himself at a devastating impasse.

“I came fourth again, this number was plaguing my Olympics career,” says Glaetzer, who made his Games debut as a 19-year-old in London in 2012 and crafted a commemorative signet ring decorated with the five rings as a special memento that he’s worn ever since.

Glaetzer competing in the men's track cycling keirin first round of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Picture: Thomas SAMSON / AFP.

“I would always have good results beforehand and then at the Olympics it didn’t come together.

“The next few months after Tokyo were interesting for me. That was my third Olympics and I’ve not got a medal again. I came home and I didn’t want to touch the bike.”

Glaetzer escaped to his family’s holiday house at Black Point on the Yorke Peninsula for a two-week break with Nikki, a midwife at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital who he had met earlier that year after reaching out to her on Instagram. Their first date was at his Futures Church in Paradise.

Nikki, a runner who had finished second in the 2016 Bay Sheffield 550m, was training for a half ironwoman and begged her boyfriend to join her on the bike.

“I was riding and he wasn’t,” she says. “I was like ‘can you please ride with me’ and he couldn’t. He hated the bike, he just didn’t want to look at it.”

Glaetzer celebrates his team's third place bronze medal. Picture: SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP.

It had been a torturous, heartbreaking road to Tokyo for Glaetzer, who had been hit with life-changing detours.

In 2019, riding high after clinching the individual sprint world championship in the Netherlands the year before, the young athlete was blindsided by a devastating diagnosis.

Scans to find an answer to a lingering neck injury suffered during routine training on a leg press had unearthed malignant tumors in his thyroid.

Two weeks later, he was having intricate surgery to remove his thyroid and lymph nodes in his neck, where the cancer had spread.

“I trained the day before surgery. I was trying to minimise the effect of surgery because I was still thinking about the Olympics at that point, keep my goals alive,” says the devout Christian, who then went through radiotherapy treatment.

“My life was in the balance for a little while there. I was like, ‘if this is my fate, so be it’. I was quite prepared for the worst-case scenario.

“Through that time, I just relied on my relationship with God and the strength that gave me to keep trying, keep progressing, not fall into the fear and just hide away.”

Three days after his surgery, a determined Glaetzer was back in the gym and training hard.

But his indomitable drive took another devastating blow just two months later, when he was hit with another crippling hurdle that almost derailed his chances in Tokyo.

During a routine workout on a stationary bike just a week out from the 2020 world championships, Glaetzer felt his calf muscle “snap like a rubber band”.

“I’d got rid of the cancer, my blood levels were looking good and then I tore my calf ... and to be honest, that hit me hardest, more than getting cancer, mentally and emotionally because I could somewhat train through the cancer diagnosis but I couldn’t train with my calf that’s just been torn,” he says.

“I was devastated, I couldn’t even walk. I was stressed and sad about the whole situation. It was almost the straw that broke the camel’s back.

“After getting through the cancer journey and all it took to go through to this one that felt like it damaged my Olympic chances more, it was pretty hard to take.”

As he began the long rounds of rehabilitation, Glaetzer was handed a silver lining.

The Covid pandemic had delayed the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, giving him another 12 months to get his body back on track.

“For most people it was really bad, but for me personally it gave me a chance to have more time to prepare,” he says.

“It was frustrating when things go wrong but I was never complaining about why it was happening to me, it was just hard to accept in the moment but it took time to work through every time.”

Bronze medallists Matthew Glaetzer, Leigh Hoffman, Matthew Richardson of Team Australia pose on the podium after the Men's Team Sprint – Finals. Picture: Alex Broadway/Getty Images)

After that emotional journey to Tokyo and his dark days in its aftermath, it was Nikki’s desire to “go on that sporting journey with him” that coaxed him back on track.

He resumed training “long before I wanted to” but that fight eventually kicked in.

“After about six months, I was actually enjoying it again and pushing hard for Paris. Paris was the big goal and I was going to do everything I can to work hard and have another go at it,” he says.

Nikki watched him win his fifth Commonwealth Games gold medal in Birmingham in 2022 and race to second in the team sprint at the 2023 world championships in Glasgow.

“Going to the Olympics meant that I would have checked off all three, which is awesome. It’s so amazing to share that,” she says.

Fast forward to Paris, a calm and composed Glaetzer – who married his love, Nikki, in a romantic Adelaide Hills ceremony in January last year and set up a happy home in Paradise – was ready to give himself one last, determined shot at his Olympic dream.

“I knew it was my last Olympics after the difficulties I had post-Tokyo, that I wouldn’t have another four-year cycle in me,” he says.

Standing, at last, on the winners’ podium under the Australian flag – and with the French connection to friends and family back home gathering around television screens to watch his feat – Glaetzer felt waves of relief as his epic Olympic story reached its final, joyful chapter.

“It was amazing being on the podium. I’d been on the podium for everything except the Olympics and it had finally happened,” he says.

Glaetzer with his wife Nikki Glaetzer. Picture: Kelly Barnes

“The way it’s played out, we’ve always lost the bronze final. This time around to actually be on the winning side was a relief but at the same time super exciting because I knew I’d achieved that one goal that I’d set out to do.”

Now, Glaetzer is taking a break from his rigorous training schedule until the end of the year and will miss the next world championships, keen to give younger athletes a shot. He will continue to compete internationally for another couple of years but has raced at his last Olympics.

With his eyes on the future, he’s finishing a health science degree with the University of South Australia. He also plans to play a lot of golf at Tea Tree Gully Golf Club, where he’s an honorary member.

And he’s ready for his next chapter.

“I’m still weighing up options because I have time and I don’t want to jump into anything,” he said.

I’m not sad about it being my last Olympics. It’s a lot of relief, mission accomplished.”

Matt and Nikki Glaetzer on their wedding day.

List of previous finishes on Instagram

Originally published as SA Olympian Matthew Glaetzer talks about the lucky charm that made Olympic dream come true