Australia bans Richardson for life after joining British squad

2 mins

The 25-year-old runner won silver in the individual sprint and keirin, as well as bronze in the team sprint at the Paris Games in August.

But Richardson, who was born in England before moving to Australia aged nine, announced after the Olympics that he was switching competitive allegiances.

The governing body of Australian cycling found, following an investigation, that his behavior was “ in conflict with the values ​​of AusCycling, the Australian National Team and the wider cycling community “.

Consequently, he will never be able to rejoin the Australian cycling team, in case he wants to change his sporting nationality again in the future.

The Australian Federation’s investigation found that Richardson and world cycling’s governing body, the UCI, agreed to keep his change of nationality a secret until after the Olympics, with support from British Cycling.

The UCI clarified on Tuesday that the process of changing sporting nationality had “ was initiated upon receipt of Matthew Richardson’s request, the rider being the only party involved in this procedure » and that she had made the change “ on the date requested by the applicant, August 19, 2024 “.

“He also hid his decision from AusCycling, his teammates and key stakeholders before the Games,” explains the statement from the Australian Federation, which also criticizes Richardson for asking to take with him, after the Olympics, a custom bike, a cockpit and an Olympic racing suit belonging to the Australian team, before he announced his intentions.

“ This represented an unacceptable risk to AusCycling’s intellectual property ”, according to it.

Revealing his “personal choice” in August, Richardson said changing his nationality had been “ a difficult decision ” and that he had ” not taken lightly “.

The cyclist won two gold medals at the 2022 Commonwealth Games and has five World Championship medals, including team sprint gold in 2022.