Matthew Richardson (cycling) has been representing Australia since he was a teenager but came of age as a sprinter earlier this year after he won the Nations Cup in Canada defeating Olympic silver medallist Jeffrey Hoogland in the final. Born in England, Richardson grew up in Maidstone, Kent until he was nine when he moved to Western Australia for his father’s work. His first passion was gymnastics and he competed on the floor, pommel, rings, vault and parallel bars and was good enough to win a bronze medal at the junior nationals. When he was 14 an elbow injury ended his budding gymnastics career and he joined Midland Cycling in Perth, the same club that produced Giro d’Italia winner Jai Hindley. Within a year he was working at WA Sports Institute and by 19 was competing at the World Championships in the team sprint. Richardson competed in all three sprint events on his Olympic debut in Tokyo with the best result of fourth in the team sprint.