Create an experience with Matt Richards

Having been at Royal Wolverhampton Swimming Club since childhood, Richards made the switch – initially for a temporary 10-week stint, before opting to make the move permanent – to the National Centre in Bath in the summer of 2020, where his performances reached another level. The Worcester-born Welshman had already signalled his huge potential by winning 100m freestyle gold as a 16-year-old at the 2018 European Junior Championship in a time of 48.88s – making him the seventh-fastest British swimmer in history in the event across all ages. He got a taste of elite senior action when impressing for the New York Breakers in the International Swimming League later in 2020 and knocked more time off his 100m free PB when clocking 48.23s at the 2021 Selection Trials, booking his place on the plane to Tokyo as an 18-year-old. Richards first showed a love of the water on a family holiday to Tenerife as a five-year-old when he decided he didn’t want to wear armbands anymore, so took them off and promptly launched himself into the hotel pool.