Harrie Lavreysen broke Team GB's exceptional winning streak in the men's Keirin when he delivered his third gold medal for the Netherlands at the 2024 Olympic Games on Sunday.
Australians Matthew Richardson and Matthew Glaetzer took second and third respectively, as British rider Jack Carlin crashed out of the men's final following wins in the quarter-finals and semi-finals.
Lavreysen powered to the front of the fast race and nobody could get back to the man who claimed his fifth Olympic title.
“It’s incredible, this was my biggest dream to go for gold three times,” Lavreysen said.
“I didn’t want to think too much about three golds this morning. I wanted to see this keirin as just one race. I felt really strong this morning. I tried to go safe in the semi-final, and in the final, I think I was positioned really well and then went full out. I’m not often emotional but this is special.
“In Tokyo, I had two golds and one bronze. I found it really hard to be strong for a full week but since then I did it in the UCI World Championships, so I knew it was possible.”
Three years ago, 25-year-old Richardson finished 13th in the Keirin, and 22nd in the sprint at the Tokyo Olympics. He now leaves Paris with two silver medals, in the keirin and sprint, and a bronze in the team sprint.
“It's a good way to finish, for sure,” Richardson said of his silver medal. “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,” Richardson said.
“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.”
Glaetzer was happy to come away with the bronze medal in his final Olympic games. “It was little bit of an early move in the end. But I wanted to make sure I didn't get caught out and ride a race that I was proud of. In the end, I stayed on my bike, dodged the chaos, crossed the line and felt blessed to get an individual medal.”
