Triple Olympic medallist is fiercely honest about the storm of emotion that engulfed her in the Paris velodrome and being unable to tell her family Matthew Richardson would soon be joining her in Britain
‘It’s a good question,” Emma Finucane says as she thinks searchingly of the most important lesson she has learned about herself after a year like no other for the 21-year-old sprint cyclist. She won three Olympic medals, including one gold, and two world champion titles while carrying a secret she could not even share with her family for many months.
Finucane’s fierce honesty and questioning introspection is rare in such a young rider who is in the foothills of a career that may yet transcend the achievements of British Olympic track riders led by Jason and Laura Kenny and Chris Hoy. Her candour and intelligence soon emerge as she charts the physical and psychological depths explored at the Paris Olympics before she talks openly about the way she and her boyfriend, Matthew Richardson, who won three sprint medals for Australia at the Games, knew he would soon switch countries and move to GB Cycling. That decision shocked and dismayed his former teammates and supporters.
Written by Donald McRae
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/dec/03/emma-finucane-interview-cycling-olympics-matthew-richardson under the title “‘I kept his secret’: Emma Finucane on pushing past limits and her boyfriend’s cycling defection”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
