In the men’s final, it was a showdown of the sprinters. Netherland Harrie Lavreysen was attempting to pull off the triple crown of titles after winning the men’s individual sprint and men’s team sprint. He’d have to beat Australia’s Matthew Richardson after pulling off the feat in the men’s individual sprint. Two days later, the result was the same, Lavreysen convincingly beat Richardson for the unofficial title of King of the Sprinting at the 2024 Paris Games.
Afterwards he couldn't believe it, “It’s incredible, this was my biggest dream to go for gold three times.
“I felt really strong the full week. This morning, I thought, ‘It is possible' - but I needed to ride the perfect final, and I was really close (to perfect) until the end.”
Lavreysen pulled to the front as the final bell rang. Matthew Richardson again finished second to Lavreysen after having done so in the men’s individual sprint. Richardson’s teammate Matthew Glaetzer finished third after a large crash took out the remaining riders including Great Britain’s Jack Carlin. Lavreysen finished with a time of 9.397 and averaging a speed of 76.620 KM/H, Richardson finished .056 behind him.
The Dutchman joins Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny as the only riders to win three sprint medals in a single Games. He also became the Netherlands' first Summer Olympian to win five career gold medals. He has now won a medal in every event he competed in the last two Olympics. His six Olympic medals are the most of any male Dutch cyclist in history.
He was pretty emotional after the race, "I was emotional on the podium. I felt tingling everywhere, and I had to sit down for a moment. It's not often that I get emotional, actually never, but now it just got the better of me for a moment."
Richardson became the first Australian to win three cycling medals in a single Olympics (silver in sprint and bronze in team sprint). His teammate, Glaetzer, won his second medal in his fourth Olympics (bronze team sprint).
The Aussie was proud of his performance. “It's a good way to finish, for sure. All I wanted today was to make that keirin final and put myself in a position to win the race, and I really feel like that's what I did. I gave it my absolute all. I pushed Harrie all the way to the line."
“We did the fastest keirin we've ever done in that final with a 9.3. That would have out-qualified 90% of the field on sprint day, so it just showed where the level was at and how hard we pushed each other’
Richardson has big ambitions for his future. “I’m only 25. We saw people like Chris, Jason win their sixth and seventh Olympic gold medals in their early to mid-30s. I think Chris was 36 when he got his sixth medal, so he shows you that it can be done.”
On the opposite side of the spectrum, Glaetzer was happy to end with an individual medal. "I know I am at the end of my career and it always gets harder. To have this medal, it's huge. I'm just super grateful. What a way to finish. I had a lot of bad luck in my career. I've had a lot to overcome and, Jesus, it's good to finish with some good luck."
Great Britain had won the last four gold medals in this discipline.