Olympic cycling defector Matthew Richardson may be stood down

Australia is exploring whether triple Olympic medallist Matthew Richardson can be banned from international cycling for two years following his shock defection to Great Britain.

Richardson has stunned AusCycling by deciding to race for Great Britain, announcing his move just days after winning three medals for Australia at the Paris Olympics.

Richardson raced in Paris while keeping his decision to switch allegiance secret from Australian hierarchy.

“There’s disappointment around the decision and the process and not knowing around Matt’s circumstances,” AusCycling’s executive general manager, performance, Jesse Korf, said on Tuesday.

Korf said whether a two-year non-competition clause could be applied to Richardson was being investigated.

“For sure he will not compete at the upcoming world championships (in October),” Korf said.

“But the non-competition duration and clauses, that is being interrogated and looked into at the moment together with the UCI and ASC (Australian Sports Commission).”

Korf said it was “too early to tell” if AusCycling wanted to enforce any two-year non-competition clause.

“That is something that we would have to discuss internally because we obviously have a big say in that and we need to review that,” he said.

“On that same token the AIS-slash-ASC is a big stakeholder in that they provide a lot of the funding.

“So that would have to be a conversation to get to a joint decision before we can share that and start a conversation with UCI and Matt and British Cycling.”

Richardson was born in Maidstone, England, moved to Australia at the age of nine, and cited a long-held ambition to race for his birth country for his switch.

“He quoted rationale of following a childhood dream,” Korf said.

British Cycling, which has a financial budget three times larger than AusCycling, told Korf they didn’t “proactively reach out” to entice Richardson.

Instead, the 25-year-old contacted the Brits in secret.

“There would have had to be discussions (with British Cycling) prior to Matt lodging his procedure with the UCI which got finalised at least three months ago,” Korf said.

“It’s highly likely that there would have been conversations between February and April. However the nature of that, I am not aware of.”

Richardson was Australia’s most successful cyclist at the Paris Olympics, winning silver medals in the men’s keirin and sprint, and a bronze in the men’s team sprint.

In interviews with British media, Richardson said potential Olympic selection ramifications were a reason for keeping his secret from Australia.

Korf, asked if there would have been possible ramifications, said: “That’s a really hard question to answer ... I don’t know.

“We would surely have considered the impact and ramifications and opportunity for other riders,” he said.

“In that same breath Matt was on an exceptional trajectory and performed exceptionally at the Games.

“So, yeah, all things would have been considered. I don’t know if there would have been ramifications.

“It may or may not have and they could have been both from our side or the AOC’s (Australian Olympic Committee) side.”