{"id":533504,"date":"2023-07-25T14:01:14","date_gmt":"2023-07-25T21:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=533504"},"modified":"2023-07-25T12:30:44","modified_gmt":"2023-07-25T19:30:44","slug":"world-championships-matt-richards-from-cafe-encounters-to-world-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/world-championships-matt-richards-from-cafe-encounters-to-world-champion\/","title":{"rendered":"World Championships: Matt Richards: From Cafe Encounters To World Champion"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4>World Championships: From Cafe Encounters To World Champion For Matt Richards<\/h4>\n<p><strong>Matt Richards<\/strong> was 13 when he had a chance encounter at the Ponds Forge caf\u00e9 during the <strong>2016 Summer Nationals<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/meet\/2023-world-aquatics-championships\">World Championships Meet Page<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.omegatiming.com\/2023\/world-aquatics-championships-sw-live-results\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Live Results<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/european-junior-champion-matt-richards-on-michael-phelps-cafe-encounters-and-moving-to-bath\/\">European Junior Champion Matt Richards On Michael Phelps, Cafe Encounters &amp; Moving To Bath<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/world-championships-day-3-finals-matt-richards-leads-home-tom-dean-in-historic-british-1-2-in-200-free\/\/\">World Championships: Matt Richards Leads Home Tom Dean In British 1-2 In 200 Free<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/world-championships-tom-dean-matt-richards-eye-british-history-as-stacked-field-awaits\/\">World Championships: Tom Dean &amp; Matt Richards Eye British History As Stacked Field Awaits<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Richards was there in Sheffield with dad Simon and mum Amanda and they got talking to a fellow parent.<\/p>\n<p>Richards \u2013 speaking to Swimming World in August 2020 \u2013 took up the story:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cWe were chatting about swimming and he began chatting with us and we were like \u2018have you got anybody down here?\u2019 And he was like \u2018no, my boy\u2019s in Rio.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were like \u2018that\u2019s amazing \u2013 who\u2019s your son?\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was like \u2018James Guy\u2019 and we were like \u2018WHAT? Insane.\u2019\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Fast-forward to 2023 and Richards \u2013 now 20 \u2013 became only the second Briton to win the 200 free world title with a 1:44.30 Welsh record , eight years after <strong>James Guy<\/strong> graced the top of the podium at Kazan 2015.<\/p>\n<p>Behind him \u2013 just 0.02 adrift in 1:44.32 \u2013 came <strong>Tom Dean<\/strong> as the pair secured a British one-two, a little under two years after he did the same with <strong>Duncan Scott<\/strong> at the Tokyo Olympics.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Hwang Sunwoo<\/strong> was third in 1:44.42 with defending champion <strong>David Popovici<\/strong> locked out in 1:44.90.<\/p>\n<p>Richards and Dean will reunite in the 4&#215;2 relay alongside Guy and Scott, 10 years after the pair were part of the British squad that won the title for the first time in Kazan when Richards was 12.<\/p>\n<h3>From Tenerife To The Top Table<\/h3>\n<p>Richards\u2019 water odyssey began at five-years-old on a family holiday in Tenerife.<\/p>\n<p>Disgruntled by having to wear armbands in the pool while older children didn\u2019t, he marched up to his parents, told them he\u2019d had enough and threw the armbands on the chair.<\/p>\n<p>Whereupon he turned and ran, throwing himself into the deep end to his parents\u2019 terror with Simon jumping in after the child who suffered no ill-effects.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, that holiday fostered a love of the water that 11 years later in 2019 would see Richards become European junior 100m freestyle champion in Kazan, Russia, in a time of 48.88.<\/p>\n<p>There was silver in the 200 free in 1:47.23 and bronze in the freestyle relay as the 16-year-old further underlined his potential with the Tokyo Olympics then a year away.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_527106\" style=\"width: 312px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-527106\" data-attachment-id=\"527106\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/live-british-championships-day-6-finals-dean-scott-guy-richards-among-top-quality-200-free-final\/image004-1\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/image004-1.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"1047,637\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"image004 (1)\" data-image-description=\"&lt;p&gt;image004 (1)&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Matt Richards: Photo Courtesy: Morgan Harlow\/British Swimming&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/image004-1-700x500.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/image004-1-1024x623.jpg\" class=\" wp-image-527106\" src=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/image004-1-700x500.jpg\" alt=\"image004 (1)\" width=\"302\" height=\"216\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-527106\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Matt Richards: Photo Courtesy: Morgan Harlow\/British Swimming<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The Games were postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic three months after Richards turned 17, heralding changes for the teenager.<\/p>\n<p>He moved training base from the <strong>Royal School<\/strong>, <strong>Wolverhampton<\/strong>, where he\u2019d been guided by <strong>Marc Spackman<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong>Tom Elgar<\/strong>\u00a0since he was 13, to Jol Finck at Bath Performance Centre.<\/p>\n<p>Training alongside Guy and Dean in Bath, Richards was part of the British 4&#215;2 relay squad that won gold in Tokyo, just 0.03 outside the world record of 6:58.55 that has stood to the USA since the super-suited 2009 worlds.<\/p>\n<p>However, his performances were falling short of previous years and he made a big switch between the 2022 World Championships and Commonwealth Games weeks later when he moved to <strong>Millfield<\/strong>\u00a0to work with\u00a0<strong>Ryan Livingstone<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The partnership clearly has some alchemy with the 20-year-old becoming\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/matt-richards-becomes-first-athlete-to-hit-historic-21-47-144-freestyle-triple\/\">the first man to hit a freestyle treble<\/a>\u00a0of 21\/47\/1:44 at the British trials in Sheffield.<\/p>\n<p>There was 21.98 in the 50, 47.72 in the 100 and 1:44.83 in the 200 to do something even the likes of\u00a0<strong>Pieter van den Hoogenband<\/strong>\u00a0didn\u2019t achieve during his illustrious career.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, he lowered his PB further, moving from third at 150 past Popovici and Hwang to touch in 1:44.30.<\/p>\n<p>He now stands ninth in the all-time rankings and paid tribute to Livingstone, saying:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cIt\u2019s been a long process, these things don\u2019t happen overnight.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy coach Ryan Livingstone has been incredible, all season long he\u2019s been phenomenal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can\u2019t thank him enough.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut hopefully this is the first of what will be many medals and success.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s pretty awesome to come away with my first individual gold.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Popovici was 0.79 ahead of Hwang at the 150 with Richards 0.99 adrift and Dean 1.12 behind.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_526949\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-526949\" data-attachment-id=\"526949\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/live-british-championships-day-3-finals-history-beckons-in-mens-100-free-after-matt-richards-47-72-blast\/matt-richards-5\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Matt-Richards-5-scaled.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"2560,1707\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;3.2&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;Canon EOS-1D X Mark II&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1680774563&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;34&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;5000&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.000625&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Matt Richards 5\" data-image-description=\"&lt;p&gt;Matt Richards 5&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Matt Richards: Photo Courtesy: Morgan Harlow\/British Swimming&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Matt-Richards-5-700x500.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Matt-Richards-5-1024x683.jpg\" class=\" wp-image-526949\" src=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Matt-Richards-5-700x500.jpg\" alt=\"Matt Richards 5\" width=\"300\" height=\"214\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-526949\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Matt Richards: Photo Courtesy: Morgan Harlow\/British Swimming<\/p><\/div>\n<p>However, the 18-year-old swam the slowest final split of 28.12 and was locked out of the podium.<\/p>\n<p>Richards \u2013 out in lane two between Hwang and <strong>Kieran Smith<\/strong> \u2013 wasn\u2019t aware of the Romanian and instead focused on executing his race plan.<\/p>\n<p>He said:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cSomething Ryan and I spoke about before is that swimming isn\u2019t a sport like boxing, nobody\u2019s going to come in and hit you in the face.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s all about what you do in your lane.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo that\u2019s what it was about: just maintaining my own race plan, executing the plan we\u2019d set out and fundamentally that\u2019s why I came out on top.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3>Tip Of The Hat To Popovici<\/h3>\n<p>At 18, Popovici has won two world titles and risen to third fastest all-time in 1:42.97 behind only <strong>Michael Phelps<\/strong> (1:42.96) and <strong>Paul Biedermann<\/strong> with his 1:42.00 WR.<\/p>\n<p>The pair will meet once more in the 100 free in which Popovici is the fastest man in history, with a soaring 46.86 at last year\u2019s European Championships.<\/p>\n<p>Richards said:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cHats off to David.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been a pleasure watching him over the last two years and absolutely a pleasure being able to race in the lanes across from him in this championships.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m sure it won\u2019t be the last time the two of us will go head to head.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dean added silver to bronze at last year\u2019s worlds in Budapest and with a nod to Tokyo, he said:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt seems to be every time we step on Japanese soil, we get a 1-2 in the 200m free!<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s almost a carbon copy of the Tokyo Olympics, just the other way round this time for me.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3>Dean Relishing British Quality As Quartet Reunite<\/h3>\n<p>Dean has the 200IM prelims and semis to come on Wednesday and \u2013 should all go to plan \u2013 the final on Thursday before the 4&#215;2 on Friday.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_533495\" style=\"width: 313px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-533495\" data-attachment-id=\"533495\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/world-championships-matt-richards-from-cafe-encounters-to-world-champion\/20th-world-aquatics-championships-fukuoka-2023-268\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Tom-Dean-2.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"2400,1600\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;4&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;Andrea Masini \\\/ Deepbluemedia \\\/ Insidefoto&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;NIKON Z 9&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;Tom Dean of Great Britain competes in the Men&#039;s Freestyle 200m Heats during the 20th World Aquatics Championships at the Marine Messe Hall A in Fukuoka (Japan), July 24th, 2023.&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1690199299&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;Andrea Masini \\\/ Deepbluemedia \\\/ Insidefoto&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;600&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;4000&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.0005&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;20th World Aquatics Championships Fukuoka 2023&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"20th World Aquatics Championships Fukuoka 2023\" data-image-description=\"&lt;p&gt;7\/28\/23&lt;br \/&gt;\nTom Dean of Great Britain competes in the Men&#8217;s Freestyle 200m Heats during the 20th World Aquatics Championships at the Marine Messe Hall A in Fukuoka (Japan), July 24th, 2023. Sport, Swimming, FINA, Aquatics, World Championships, World Aquatics, Fukuoka, 2023, Fukuoka 2023, Tom Dean of Great Britain, Men&#8217;s Freestyle 200m Heats&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Photo Courtesy: Andrea Masini \/ Deepbluemedia \/ Insidefoto&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Tom-Dean-2-700x500.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Tom-Dean-2-1024x683.jpg\" class=\" wp-image-533495\" src=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Tom-Dean-2-700x500.jpg\" alt=\"Tom Dean of Great Britain competes in the Men's Freestyle 200m Heats during the 20th World Aquatics Championships at the Marine Messe Hall A in Fukuoka (Japan), July 24th, 2023.\" width=\"303\" height=\"216\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-533495\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tom Dean: Photo Courtesy: Andrea Masini \/ Deepbluemedia \/ Insidefoto<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Since Guy and Scott were part of the winning 2015 squad, the pair have shared a relay podium on four occasions at two Olympics \u2013 including 4\u00d72 gold in Tokyo \u2013 and five times at World Championships.<\/p>\n<p>Scott described Guy as a leader, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/four-years-after-shock-in-gwangju-duncan-scott-talks-adam-peaty-sustained-excellence-leader-james-guy\/\">someone who has \u201cbeen at the forefront of that \u2013 the success in the 4\u00d72.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Britain is blessed with depth of quality over four lengths<\/p>\n<p>Dean said:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cOne-two at the Olympics. One-two at the World Championships two years later.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s brilliant for the country, it\u2019s brilliant for the men\u2019s 4&#215;200 freestyle and it\u2019s brilliant for Paris.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>World Championships: From Cafe Encounters To World Champion For Matt Richards Matt Richards was 13 when he had a chance encounter at the Ponds Forge caf\u00e9 during the 2016 Summer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7575,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,132850,122074,10],"tags":[70622,130626,128885,17020,128469,32014,120003,6302,28341,66654],"class_list":["post-533504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-2023-world-aquatic-championships","category-europe","category-world","tag-2023-world-aquatics-championships","tag-2023-world-championships","tag-david-popovici","tag-duncan-scott","tag-hwang-sunwoo","tag-james-guy","tag-matt-richards","tag-michael-phelps","tag-paul-biedermann","tag-tom-dean"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>World Championships: Matt Richards&#039; Odyssey To The Top<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Matt Richards was 13 when he had a chance encounter with James Guy&#039;s dad at the Ponds Forge caf\u00e9 during the 2016 Summer Nationals.\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/world-championships-matt-richards-from-cafe-encounters-to-world-champion\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"World Championships: Matt Richards: From Cafe Encounters To World Champion\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Matt Richards was 13 when he had a chance 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