Most elite athletes not named Michael Jordan don’t need to make things personal to perform at their peak, and that’s certainly the case for Leigh Hoffman.
And he wouldn’t have to look far for personal animus if he wanted to find some.
The last time the Australian track cycling team was competing in Glasgow, at the 2023 world championships, and the last time he was at the Commonwealth Games, at Birmingham 2022, he was alongside Matthew Richardson.
In fact, the first four major medals of Hoffman’s career came in team sprints with Richardson, including bronze at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
But then, as Hoffman told it on his arrival in Glasgow, they “brought a few medals back for Australia and then he went on holiday and never came back”.
Leigh Hoffman, Matthew Richardson and Matthew Glaetzer are the reigning Commonwealth Games gold medallists in the men’s team sprint. (Getty Images: John Walton/PA Images)
Richardson defected to the country of his birth after the Games and will ride for England at the Commonwealth Games for the first time.
On the way out, he took a few shots at the apparently insufficient Cycling Australia program, with whom he won 10 medals across Olympics, world champs and Commonwealth Games.
“We’d never experienced something like that,” Hoffman said.
“You grow up racing with someone and you think you’re both Aussies and then he’s not. That’s life. It is what it is.”
Leigh Hoffman and co went through a lot with Richardson (centre). (ABC News: Che Chorley)
Hoffman’s cavalier attitude to the impossibly hyped rivalry with Richardson ahead of a potential team sprint final clash next Friday morning makes sense for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, the format of track cycling being so cutthroat, these guys are no strangers to racing each other anyway.
“We’d be racing with each other in the team sprint, and every other event you race as an individual anyway,” Hoffman said.
“So even if he still represented Australia, I’d still have to come against my own teammate and aim to try and beat him and he’d be aiming to try and beat me.
“It’s kinda life in track cycling.”
The other reason is the amount of turnover across the team.
In addition to Richardson’s defection, five-time Commonwealth gold medallist Matthew Glaetzer retired, and Tom Cornish pivoted to the endurance events.
Hoffman has suddenly gone from the young buck at the Birmingham Games to the leader of a new-look sprint unit, with 23-year-old Danny Barber, 22-year-old Ryan Elliott, and 20-year-old Tayte Ryan.
The Aussies have been competing against Richardson relatively amicably the past few years. (Getty Images: Matt Jelonek)
They will relish beating England, but will not be focusing too much on Richardson, because if you’re looking the wrong way on the bike, you can easily get passed on your blind side.
“I’m excited to beat everyone in the world, he’s just another domino to fall, hopefully,” Hoffman said.
“The Australia-England rivalry goes back very far with the Ashes and all our other sports. It’s always Australia vs England, [but] for the Commonwealth Games, we’ve got some really stacked riders.
“Azizul Awang from Malaysia, who’s come in in great form; Trinidad and Tobago, Nicholas Paul – there’s a lot of great riders.
“But the fans are definitely looking forward to an Australia-England match-up.”
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