For European junior champion Matt Richards, 2020 has been a year of change.
He has had to accept, move on and reset after his potential Olympic debut was postponed just three months after the swimmer turned 17.
That was followed by the gradual acceptance that he needed to change his training base from the Royal School, Wolverhampton to Bath National Training Centre.
That also entailed leaving coaches Marc Spackman and Tom Elgar who had guided him since he was 13 to start training under Jol Finck.
That’s a lot of adapting to do over a few short months and has called on the teenager’s fortitude, Richards able to keep performing and training well despite his changing circumstances.
Inspired by the mental strength of his idol Michael Phelps.
Richards told Swimming World;
“He is the real inspiration to me and I think the reason why is purely the mental strength to be able to do the things he did.
“That is something I am really working on to try and improve. I have got a lot better at it now, that is going to limit how good you are at the sport.
“He is definitely the one person who I would say above all else I would absolutely look up to.
“Phelps has been and always will be a massive inspiration for me and I think a lot of other swimmers around the world. He is the greatest swimmer of all time.”
Photo Courtesy: matt richards twitter
Where It All Began For Richards, Tokyo Woe And Resetting
Richards gave his parents a hint of what was to come as a five-year-old on a family holiday in Tenerife.
Disgruntled by having to wear armbands in the pool while other, older children didn’t, he marched up to his mother and father, told them he’d had enough and threw the armbands on the chair.
Whereupon he turned round and ran and threw himself into the deep end to the terror of parents Simon and Amanda, with the former jumping in after the child who suffered no ill-effects.
Instead, that holiday fostered a love of the water that 11 years later would see Richards become European junior 100m freestyle champion in Kazan, Russia, with his time of 48.88secs elevating him to eighth in the British all-time rankings.
There was also silver in the 200 free in 1:47.23 and bronze in the freestyle relay as the 16-year-old served more notice of his potential which made him rethink his goals for Tokyo.
No longer was he hoping to book a slot on the relay, going along for the experience, but instead the youngster from Droitwich in the English midlands had his sights set on an individual berth.
He also had to rethink his fellow swimmers – no longer would he look up to them but instead respect them as rivals.
Photo Courtesy: matt richards twitter
That though came crashing down on 24 March when the Olympics were postponed in the wake of the pandemic, pushed back a year to July 2021.
Although the decision was not a bolt from the blue, it was a tough one for the athletes and keenly felt by Richards who then reset his goals by looking at the long term.
He said;
“I was gutted like everyone else was. But for me it was a case of they’re not going to be this summer but I have got no idea when they are going to be so I want to be ready for them whenever.
“I was absolutely gutted, for a few hours I was really upset and then I was like you know what? This is just time to start to preparing now – I don’t know when it’s going to be so I have just got to be ready.”
Richards, who qualifies for Wales through his policeman father Simon, had a pool in his back garden which enabled him to continue in the water, beneficial for body and mind.
“It was a grown-up’s version of a paddling pool. I had that in the back garden with a little hook I screwed into the garage and some bungee cords and ropes that I tied round my waist. That was how I tried to keep my feel for the water over lockdown.
“It was 5m long and about 3m wide. It was really, really useful for me: if nothing else in terms of keeping me physically fit, I think it kept me mentally sane. Just having some form of normality.
“Having a structure; getting up at this time to do this session – it just kept me psychologically in a good place.”
How The Switch To Bath Came About
Richards was then selected to go to Bath on his return to training.
It was while he was there that a change might be necessary slowly dawned on the 17-year-old whose intention had been to stay at the Royal School while also completing his A Levels next year.
He explained;
“It was a really difficult decision for me: the last thing I wanted to do was move away from Marc and Tom because I felt us three was really good as a team.
“However, when I moved down here for the return to training and was living in Bath, in this environment, with this team, with the facilities we’ve got down here and me and Jol Finck get on really well, I could see myself in this programme, this could work for me.
“At first it was like I could see myself in this programme after the Olympics and that slowly became more and more do you know what? I think I need to be here now. The last thing I want to do is come home from the Olympics next year and think what could have happened if I’d have made a move?”
Spackman and Elgar both supported Richards’ decision with the teenager effusive in his praise of the pair.
“Marc is the man who brought me to where I am today: not only in the pool but also outside the pool he has shaped me as a human being. The thought of having to leave him was the real difficulty for me in terms of making the decision to move but it was too great an opportunity at the right time to pass up on.”
Chance Encounter In A Cafe And Following In James Guy’s Slipstream
Rewind four years to summer 2016 and the summer nationals at Ponds Forge.
A 13-year-old Richards was in the café with his family when they got talking to a fellow parent.
Photo Courtesy: Erich Schlegel- USA TODAY Sports
Richards takes up the story.
“We were chatting about swimming and he began chatting with us and we were like have you got anybody down here? And he was like no, my boy’s in Rio.
“We were like that’s amazing – who’s your son? He was like James Guy and we were like WHAT? Insane.”
Fast forward and Richards shares a training pool with Guy, the double silver Olympic medallist and four-time world champion.
At the moment he shares a house with Brodie Williams, Jacob Peters, Kieran Bird and Luke Turley although he is soon preparing to move into a studio apartment, being a weekly boarder at the Royal School having clearly made an independent young man of Richards.
His final year of A Levels in Psychology and Business and BTEC in Sport will hopefully soon be sorted and for now it is full steam ahead for Tokyo next year.
“The main thinking for me are the training partners down here. There are world-class swimmers in every event here that I can be pushing myself against every single day in training. I can learn from them all: the older ones, the more experienced ones, outside of the pool – all stuff to me which feels invaluable in Olympic season.
“It felt like the right decision and still does.
“James Guy – I’ve been watching Jimmy for years now – Tom Dean, Calum Jarvis, it’s a good group of lads.
“Working with Jol: he’s a really good coach, he’s phenomenal. No-one could ever argue that. He has produced James Guy, he won world championships under Jol Finck. His programme and philosophy I really buy into and I like the way it works. That coupled with the environment was too much to say no to.”
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A rather different decision, re his Derby coach, from that made by Adam Peaty. You might have left the best behind.