Matt Richards MBE is a triple Olympic medallist, a multi-time World Champion, and one of Wales’s most decorated athletes of all time. Matt became both an Olympic and World Champion by the age of 20. Richards is the youngest Welsh Olympic gold medallist, having won gold at the age of 18 at the Tokyo Olympics as part of the Team GB 4x200m freestyle relay team.

Richards rose to global prominence at the 2020 Summer Olympics, where he swam the third leg of Great Britain’s historic gold-medal-winning 4×200m freestyle relay. The victory marked the first time a British team had won the event since 1908.

In 2022, representing Team Wales at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, Richards recorded four fourth-place finishes, gaining valuable experience and setting his sights on future Commonwealth podiums.

His breakthrough individual world title arrived at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships, where he won gold in the 200m freestyle, alongside another world gold in the 4×200m freestyle relay.

Richards continued his Olympic success at the 2024 Summer Olympics, earning silver in the 200m freestyle, confirming his place among the world’s elite freestylers.

Most recently, at the 2026 Aquatics GB Swimming Championships, he was crowned British Champion in both the 100m and 200m freestyle, and also secured silver in the 50m freestyle.

Still only in his early twenties, Matt Richards continues to build a world-class career and remains a central figure in Great Britain’s freestyle success.