Team GB athlete convinced he was wrongly denied gold medal at Olympics as footage emerges
Team GB swimmer Matt Richards believes he was wrongly denied gold at the 2024 Olympics.
Richards swam in lane one after an underwhelming performance in qualifying.
But he led the way and appeared destined to pip his rivals at the crucial moment.
However, Romania's 19-year-old David Popovici clinched victory by 0.02 seconds in a dramatic ending to the men’s 200m freestyle.
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Richards, though, is convinced he touched the wall first as BBC pundits Adrian Moorhouse and Steve Parry agreed with him when reviewing the footage.
WHAT A RACE 🤯
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) July 29, 2024
Matt Richards takes silver in the 200m freestyle final as David Popovici wins gold 🥇
Duncan Scott narrowly misses out on bronze 😭#Olympics #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/fi73DmjnHc
Even though he took home silver - his first Olympic individual medal, the 21-year-old felt he may have done enough to win gold.
Asked for his verdict on the controversial finish, he replied: "I thought I had got it, it felt as if I had touched it first. The time says differently.
"It is not a sport that is up for debate, it is black and white. It wasn’t my best finish, I would be lying if I said it was fantastic. We move on, we get better and try to get it next time."
"If anything, it's just added more fire to my belly." 👊
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) July 29, 2024
Matt Richards is taking the positives despite missing out on gold by by 0.02 seconds from lane one in the 200m freestyle 🤯
It's his first ever individual Olympic medal 🥈#Olympics #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/BmOuCUQfH1
On the race, Adrian Moorhouse said: "That was such a tight race.
"I think David Popovici thought he had lost it there, when he went through the turn he just had to dig deep.
"Matt Richards had an excellent race, did everything he could have done, lost out at the very last."
Steve Parry added: "That was absolutely incredible, for all his life Matt Richards looked like he was slowing down in the last 15m, but he just found something.
"Popovici has a bemused look on his face - he doesn’t know what happened in that race, it was just bonkers."
Nasir Jabbar