Paris Olympics: Aussies Matthew Glaetzer, Matthew Richardson & Leigh Hoffman snare team sprint finals bronze

The monkey is finally off Matthew Glaetzer’s back.

The Aussie athlete dubbed the most unlucky man in cycling at last snapped his string of medal near-misses, snaring bronze alongside teammates Matthew Richardson and Leigh Hoffman in the men’s team sprint.

Australia had finished fourth in this event in each of the past five Olympic campaigns, with Glaetzer a part of the past three efforts and falling agonisingly short of the podium each time.

But as he prepares to head into retirement, the soon-to-be 32-year-old at last has the medal that had proved so elusive across his distinguished career, courtesy of Australia’s win over host nation France by 0.396 seconds.

“I’ve been chasing an Olympic medal my whole career,” Glaetzer said.

“Every single team sprint (from 2004 onwards), we’ve come fourth.

“It’s been the monkey on my back that I just haven’t been able to shake.

“We’ve lost to France twice in the Olympic final for bronze, and when we were heading up against them again, I was like, ‘Here we go’.

“To finally get the medal is a huge relief.”

Glaetzer almost gave the sport away after the Tokyo Games three years ago following a torrid stretch. The South Australian overcame a battle with thyroid cancer and was hampered by a torn calf muscle in the lead-up to those Olympics, but ultimately recommitted for one final campaign to push to get on the podium.

He paid tribute to WA’s Richardson and fellow South Aussie Hoffman in paving the foundations for the bronze medal triumph after a change to the team’s order proved successful.

“I’m super proud of them. They’re such talents and they deserve this so much,” Glaetzer said.

“They’ve improved so much over the past four years.

“They’ve pushed me along. I’m the old dog of the squad and I couldn’t have done this without them.”

Richardson said he was thrilled to have reversed the curse of Australia’s run of fourth-place finishes.

“We weren’t going to get beaten by the French again, so we just put it all out on the line and trusted each other in the position we were in,” he said.

“We just rode our hearts out.”

The breakthrough medal capped a successful night for Australia at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome, with Sam Welsford, Kelland O’Brien, Conor Leahy and Oliver Bleddyn setting a new world record in the team pursuit heat.

The quartet clocked a time of 3:40.73, almost a second-and-a-half faster than the previous mark set by Italy at the last Olympics.

The Aussie team will face Great Britain in a gold medal showdown on Thursday morning (WA time).