Kent cyclist Matthew Robertson was rewarded for his resilience with a Paralympic bronze medal.
Having been heartbroken by narrowly missing out on a place at the Tokyo Games, the 25-year-old was involved in a road traffic accident in 2023.
Robertson is now a medallist and the pride of ParalympicsGB after he collected bronze in the men’s C2 3,000m individual pursuit at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome.
“I didn’t feel incredible on the bike because this is so hard but I feel incredible now,” said Robertson, who is one of over 1,000 elite athletes on UK Sport’s National Lottery-funded World Class Programme, allowing them to train full time, have access to the world’s best coaches and benefit from pioneering medical support – which has been vital on their pathway to the Paris 2024 Games.
“This is the culmination of so much hard work, and I can’t tell you how special it is to be standing here with a medal.”
Gold and silver proved out of reach for the Brit after stunning performances from home favourite Alexandre Leaute and Ewoud Vromant of Belgium.
But he posted the third-quickest time in qualifying and had too much for Japan’s Shota Kawamoto in the bronze medal ride, claiming victory by a margin of around 1.5 seconds in a winning time of 3:28.373.
Robertson, who has cerebral palsy, struggles with function on the right side of his body.
He was picked up by the prestigious British Cycling academy after victory at the 2015 School Games and narrowly missed out on Tokyo despite winning medals at the UCI Road World Cup in Paralympic year.
“It was really hard watching the guys in Tokyo on television,” said Robertson. “I wanted to be there and experiencing it so much. Now I’ve got my moment too.”
Robertson won bronze in the C2 omnium at the UCI World Championships in Rio earlier this year to fuel hope for the Games.
A bronze medal in Paris is just reward for his hard work after the accident threatened to scupper his progress.
“When I was in that hospital bed I said to my coach I didn’t want to do this anymore, I was done, I wasn’t even thinking about coming to the Paralympics,” said Robertson, who has further shots at glory in next week’s road race and time trial on the streets of the French capital.
“The recovery took eight months, but I never stopped working during that time doing everything I could to get back to fitness. This is what all that hard work is for, standing on that podium and seeing your flag going up.”
National Lottery players raise more than £30million a week for good causes including vital funding into sport – from grassroots to elite. To find out more visit: www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk
