Is Richards Britain's next swimming superstar?

Matt Richards won Olympic gold as an 18-year-old in Tokyo

In 2021, Matt Richards became an Olympic champion. He had reached the pinnacle of his sport - at just 18 years and 223 days old.

Richards swam the third leg of Great Britain's dominant performance in the men's 4x200m freestyle relay final.

In Wales the news was seismic. The nation's youngest Olympic champion in history and the first Welsh gold medallist in swimming (alongside Calum Jarvis) in more than a century.

But with team-mates Tom Dean and Duncan Scott also winning a remarkable gold and silver in the individual 200m freestyle final, his achievement went - understandably - a little under the radar.

At his second Olympics in Paris, the now 21-year-old Richards is ready to be the main man.

Last year he won his first individual world title in the men's 200m freestyle. He broke the British record in the 100m freestyle.

He also became the first person to swim a sub-22 second 50m freestyle, a sub-48 second 100m freestyle and a sub-one minute, 45 second 200m freestyle.

In short, he has become one of the world's very best.

Richards qualified for three individual events in Paris - though will just swim the men's 100m and 200m freestyle. He will likely have three relays too.

It could be a really special summer.

"I can't wait," he told BBC Sport Wales. "I'm really looking forward to getting racing.

"I was a young newbie to the team at the last Olympics. There was absolutely no expectation on me. It was just 'get in and see what you can do'.

"Now there is more expectation on me but I look at that as a privilege. It means you've done something well to get to that position.

"We all believe I can do something special and that's exciting."

So many events could mean as many as 15 races in nine days of competition.

But Richards is relishing each and every opportunity he gets.

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't targeting individual success this summer," he continued.

"But that doesn't take anything away from the relays. The relays in Britain are so, so important to us. We're a smaller nation than America, the Aussies and the Chinese - they all have much bigger pools of swimmers to draw from than we do.

"But we pride ourselves on how much we come together as a relay and how much we fight for each other as a team. So that's just as important to me as it was back then [in Tokyo]."

Matt Richards won gold in the men's 4x200m freestyle relay alongside Tom Dean, James Guy and Duncan Scott

But Richards' rise has not been without its tougher times.

In 2022, as Olympic champion, the Welshman went into the Commonwealth Games with high hopes of individual success then too.

But he struggled to reach the levels of his performances the previous year and - after a string of fourth-place finishes - left Birmingham empty-handed.

He decided he needed a change. He left the renowned Aquatics GB Performance Centre in Bath and joined a small group training at Millfield School in Somerset, led by coach Ryan Livingstone.

Richards describes Livingstone as "a wizard". He had sat down with him for a coffee and knew within minutes that this was the man to get his career back on track.

A few months later, Richards became the world 200m freestyle champion.

"He's an absolutely genius," Richards says. "He's got such an understanding of the knowledge and the science behind what we do, which works really well for me.

"I like to understand what things are doing to my body, why this type of training is doing that, why doing this in the gym will help that in the pool. And he knows all of that.

"For me, when I know why I'm doing something, I can give absolutely everything to it.

"He'd tell me off for crediting him so much, but I credit him with the success I've had over the last year or so."

Richards won his first major individual title in the men's 200m freestyle at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships

Richards is ambitious without any arrogance.

He is one of the most grounded 21-year-olds you could meet.

At his family home in Worcestershire, with his grandparents still living next door, he says he would not be where he is without the support of his family.

He showed just how close the family is in a special feature available on the BBC iPlayer.

That support had to happen from a distance in Tokyo, with no spectators allowed because of Covid.

But Matt's parents, Simon and Amanda, will be in the stands to cheer him on in Paris - along with his fiancee, Emily.

On the blocks, Matt will visualise his race. He has visualised them all already - every night before he goes to bed.

He thinks about every way a race could go in advance, so when the day comes he knows exactly how to react to every scenario.

He has studied photos and videos of the pool in the Paris La Defense Arena to get his visualisation as clear as possible.

Now the only thing left to do is to swim.

"I'm in the best shape I've ever been and I'm swimming faster than I ever have," Richards says.

"I've got that fire in my belly and I want to get out there and race.

"I want to enjoy the racing and do everything I can to try to bring home some golds."