Richards thrives on pressure to spark relay glory
➤ Teenager able to enjoy race after team-mate Guy’s advice ➤ Scott chasing a four-medal haul as Dean takes second gold
Matthew Richards only turned 18 last December and so, when the spectre of pressure and Simone Biles’s shock Olympic withdrawal was raised, it was striking that he should speak up first among the triumphant British 4x200metres freestyle relay team.
“I was thinking about this before the race last night,” he said. “There was a lot of pressure. It was [only] the second time ever I have raced the 4x200m freestyle. To do it in the Olympic Games, when we are going in favourites by over two seconds, is terrifying.”
With no friends and family in Tokyo, Richards evidently had the perfect team-mate in James Guy to help him rationalise what lay ahead. Guy had won two Olympic silvers five years ago in Rio de Janeiro, at the age only of 20, and relayed a simple piece of advice.
“One thing Jimmy said was just to go out and enjoy it,” said Richards. “That’s why we get up early every morning and why we work hard and come here. Because we love it. The pressure is there but, as long as you enjoy what you are doing, it’s part of what we do.”
Richards duly raced like a swimmer who was in Tokyo simply to have the time of his life, powering away on the third leg after Guy had first established Team GB’S lead to set up Duncan Scott for a hat-trick of Team GB swimming golds.
Richards was not even born the last time that the United States had been beaten in the 200m freestyle relay but, rather like Adam Peaty in the 100m breaststroke on Monday, the men’s freestylers were so dominant that onlookers found themselves looking for their time before even the position.
The clock stopped at 6min 58.58sec – a national and European record, and more than three seconds ahead of the Russian Olympic Committee in silver, but an agonising 0.03 seconds outside the world record.
That was set by the United States back in 2009 by a team that contained Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte in a style of swimming suit, which was designed to minimise drag through the water, that is now banned.
Factor in the respective ages of the British team – 21, 18, 25, 24 – as well as the fact that Tom Dean, the winner of the men’s 200m freestyle, was more than one second outside his personal best following his individual exertions, and it feels reasonable to assume that this world record should soon fall their way.
“There is definitely more to come – I think the world record will hopefully be ours sooner rather than later,” said Dean, who had also become the first British male swimmer since Henry Taylor in 1908 to win two Olympic golds.
Dean also emphasised how the path to this Olympic gold, which had followed silver in the same event in Rio and then World Championship gold, had actually been a long time coming.
“I know it looks like we have burst onto the scene and won the Olympics, but this has been years in the making – the past few years we have been getting stronger and stronger, more and more depth,” he said.
The truth yesterday morning was that it was Dean’s team-mates – Guy, Richards and the phenomenal Scott – who made the most difference.
Dean had actually passed over in third place following the first leg but, knowing that this was their one opportunity, both Guy and Richards excelled in the middle of the race.
There would later also be a fifth gold for Calum Jarvis, who performed an important service in helping Team GB to the final and allowing Scott to rest up when the semi-finals took place. It certainly then showed in his swim.
Scott now has a gold and silver at these Games, but still also has the 200m individual medley and then the men’s 4x100m medley relay to come.
He could yet easily end these Games with the unprecedented British achievement of four medals at the same Olympics.
Dean had simply responded with the words “no way” when told that Scott’s split was 1-43.45. It was the fifth fastest in history and, even after beating him by 0.04 seconds the previous day, he said that he looked up to his team-mate. If all goes to plan, Scott will have raced nine times in Tokyo by Sunday morning.
His wider team are also increasingly likely to depart as the most successful group of Olympic swimmers that the country has ever seen.