Australian track cycling sprint icon Matthew Glaetzer has announced his retirement.<\/p>\n
Glaetzer\u00a0officially called time on his career\u00a0today, ending a storied\u00a015-year\u00a0campaign with\u00a0the ARA\u00a0Australian Cycling Team\u00a0that\u00a0included four Olympic Games and three Commonwealth Games.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I want to sincerely thank each and every one of the people\u00a0around me throughout my career\u00a0for the support, guidance and belief you have shown me,” Glaetzer said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“As many\u00a0would\u00a0know, I have been working towards a new career as a firefighter and this year I have been fortunate to\u00a0commence\u00a0full-time employment in that role. With this transition,\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0formally\u00a0announcing\u00a0that I am retiring from the sport to which I have dedicated the past 15 years of my life.<\/p>\n
“I am proud of what I have achieved and deeply grateful\u00a0for the people who have been part of that journey. If, along the way, I have had any positive impact on you, then I consider my time in\u00a0the sport\u00a0a true success.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Thank you again for everything. I am excited to embrace this next chapter and continue serving the community through my new career with the\u00a0South Australian\u00a0Metropolitan\u00a0Fire\u00a0Service.”<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s announcement\u00a0means the Paris 2024 Olympic Games were the\u00a033-year-old’s final\u00a0competitive appearance. It\u00a0proved\u00a0a fitting\u00a0farewell, where\u00a0Glaetzer\u00a0achieved his sporting dream of winning an Olympic medal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Glaetzer\u2019s\u00a0Olympic journey\u00a0began at London 2012 when Australia\u2019s team sprint finished fourth in the bronze\u00a0medal final versus Germany.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
At Rio 2016, Glaetzer heartbreakingly finished fourth twice in the team sprint and sprint.<\/p>\n
At Tokyo 2020, it was a third consecutive fourth in the team sprint and fifth in the keirin.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In\u00a0Paris,\u00a0Glaetzer\u00a0won bronze in the team sprint\u00a0and\u00a0labelled\u00a0the breakthrough\u00a0as \u201clike a gold to me\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Five days later,\u00a0Glaetzer\u00a0famously\u00a0doubled his Olympic\u00a0medal tally\u00a0with bronze\u00a0in the keirin.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The South Australian\u00a0hangs up the bike\u00a0as the winner of 18 major international medals across\u00a0the Olympic\u00a0Games (two bronze), Commonwealth Games (five gold, two bronze)\u00a0and\u00a0UCI Track World Championships\u00a0(three gold, four\u00a0silver, two bronze).\u00a0<\/p>\n
As a\u00a0burgeoning\u00a0teenage\u00a0talent, Glaetzer first represented Australia at the 2009 UCI Junior Track World Championships, just months after\u00a0joining Central Districts Cycling Club\u00a0and his introduction to the velodrome.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He returned\u00a0to the same event a year later\u00a0and displayed early signs of the greatness that was to come, winning the\u00a0sprint and\u00a0keirin\u00a0junior\u00a0world\u00a0titles.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Seven months later, the then 18-year-old\u00a0began\u00a0his\u00a0senior\u00a0Australian Cycling Team\u00a0career\u00a0at the 2011 UCI Track World Championships\u00a0with\u00a0bronze in the team sprint.\u00a0<\/p>\n
From 2012\u00a0to 2018,\u00a0Glaetzer\u00a0grew into the stature of a household name\u00a0because of his\u00a0Olympic and Commonwealth Games\u00a0performances,\u00a0but his story turned to truly inspirational\u00a0late\u00a0in 2019 after\u00a0a shock thyroid cancer diagnosis.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Following\u00a0surgery,\u00a0Glaetzer\u00a0swiftly\u00a0returned to\u00a0racing within a month\u00a0and\u00a0delivered podium results\u00a0at\u00a0UCI Track World Cups in Cambridge and Brisbane before\u00a0his\u00a0selection\u00a0for Tokyo 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gracie Elvin, AusCycling Athlete Liaison and Alumni Club lead,\u00a0paid tribute to\u00a0the\u00a0impact and\u00a0cultural\u00a0legacy\u00a0Glaetzer\u00a0will leave\u00a0with the Australian Cycling Team.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile Matt was an exceptional sprinter and achieved many notable results, he\u00a0was just as well-\u00a0known for his resilience, determination, and generous spirit,\u201d Elvin said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hope that Matt would like to continue his journey in cycling off the track and within the Alumni Club, where he can share his knowledge and passion for the next wave of sprinters while being supported by fellow alumni in his transition away from racing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Feature picture: Con Chronis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian track cycling sprint icon Matthew Glaetzer has announced his retirement. Glaetzer\u00a0officially called time on his career\u00a0today, ending…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-635234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}