Olympic Games 2024: Welsh swimmer Matt Richards set for 'intense' trials

Matt Richards became Wales’ first swimming world champion in 2023

Olympic and world champion Matt Richards is targeting a special summer at the Paris Olympics.

However, he needs to secure his place via next week's "intense" British trials.

The 2024 British Swimming Championships - which begin on Tuesday - double up as the Olympic and Paralympic trials.

The event will conclude with a men's 200m freestyle final that could be one of the most competitive domestic events in history.

The reigning Olympic gold and silver medallists, current world champion and former world champion will be among those taking part - with only the top two guaranteed to make the event at the Games this summer.

"The depth we have in British men's freestyle is exceptional," Richards, 22, told BBC Sport Wales.

"I think you would be hard-pressed to find a men's event anywhere in the world where they have the kind of depth we have at the top end like we do in the men's 200m freestyle in Britain. It's really intense.

"I think you've got to expect the difference between making it individually and just being there as part of the relay to probably be somewhere in the region of a couple of tenths [of a second] at most. That's all we're talking here. In the pool that could be a hand's length. It's that close.

"But I think that adds to the excitement of that race."

Reigning Olympic champion Tom Dean, Olympic silver medallist Duncan Scott and former world champion James Guy will rival Richards for the coveted top two finish - and guaranteed place on Team GB.

The quartet won Olympic gold together in the men's 4x200m freestyle relay at Tokyo 2020.

Richards' individual world title in the event last summer cemented his reputation in that top tier of British - and world class - swimmers.

But it also confirmed a return to form following a difficult 2022 in which he had slipped to 30th in the world.

"In 2022 I went backwards," he admitted. "I was still in there in the relays, but individually I was just a step further back than where I wanted to be.

"There were days where I'd question my ability. It's very easy to think 'have I reached my peak?'. Am I at the point where it's downhill from here? That was really scary. Because it was my dream since being a child and it was looming that it was potentially not going to be possible.

"However, I think deep down I always had that belief in myself."

Richards had been training with the likes of Dean and Guy in Bath. But he knew he had to make a change.

After weighing up a number of options, a two-hour chat with coach Ryan Livingstone convinced him to start training under him at Millfield School in Somerset.

They ripped up his training programme and started afresh.

"It's [now] very, very highly specific," explains Richards.

"Because of my physiology I work really well at the really high intensity top end work. Your race pace, your speed - the anaerobic stuff. And then also the really low end aerobic stuff, the quite easy slow stuff.

"So for me that top and bottom end is really good but that middle zone I really struggle with working in that area. That was kind of the area I was working in 2022. But for me we know now that that just doesn't work."

Richards admits he likes to ask 'why' - and understand the theory behind his training. In his own words, once he knows why he is doing something, he finds it easier to give everything he has got to make it a success.

In Ryan Livingstone, he says he has someone always prepared to give him an answer.

Within months, their new partnership started to pay off.

At the 2023 World Championships last June, Richards not only won the men's 200m freestyle title - he also became the first swimmer in history to swim a sub-22 second 50m freestyle, a sub-48 second 100m freestyle and a sub-1 minute 45 second 200m freestyle.

Those performances have left Richards dreaming of a special summer in Paris, with relays taking the number of events he could compete in to as many as six. If those all-important trials next week go to plan.

"Assuming everything goes perfectly, hopefully I'll have a really busy summer," said Richards.

"Both individually and as part of the relays I want to try to win as many medals as I can and try to do the country proud.

"But is it something I would say is guaranteed? No, not at all. I respect everyone I'm going to be racing far too much to say that I would be able to do that right now. But if I were able to qualify in five or six different events, including relays, then absolutely goal would be to try to win them all and I'll see how close I can get to that in the summer."

The disappointment of 2022 is long in the past for Richards. In fact, he is grateful for what he learnt from the experience.

Now he is only looking forwards.

A sizeable hurdle remains on his path to Paris. But if he can get past that at trials, it could indeed be just the start of a special summer.