The surprise news immediately after the Paris Olympics came in the wake of Matthew Richardson, who had delivered three medals for Australia, transferring allegiance to Britain, imposing sanctions, but ultimately concluded that the two-year non-competition clause was legally unenforceable.

Richardson, who won a bronze medal in the Team Sprint and a silver medal in both Kaylin and Personal Sprint, was born in Maidstone, Kent and has lived in Australia since the age of 9. He announced that he would return to the UK on 8 May and switch his nationality. "A review that thoroughly investigated Richardson's actions determined that he acted in a manner inconsistent with the values of AusCycling, the Australian National Team and the wider cycling community," the National Federation said in a statement. AusCycling said key findings of the review included Richardson's request for the Uci to delay official disclosure of nationality changes until after the Olympics, a request backed by British cycling, and also withhold decisions from AusCycling, his teammates and key stakeholders before the Olympics. 

The State Agency also after Paris, as he also took AusCycling property including a custom bike, cockpit and Olympic race suit to the UK before the decision was announced

"This represented an unacceptable risk to the intellectual property of AusCycling," AusCycling said.

As part of the review, AusCycling also said it considered what sanctions would apply and prohibited anyone from rejoining the Australian cycling team at any time, using resources related to the team or its partners, and disqualifying them from AusCycling-related awards. 

Richardson wore Great Britain colours for the first time on the opening weekend of the UCI Track Champions League last weekend, but was technically unable to compete in Great Britain until early next year due to uci regulations and was forced to miss the World Championships on October. But the Australian agency concluded that the prospect of a much more influential two-year ban on competition was not an option available in reality.

"AusCycling investigated the imposition of a two-year non-competitive clause as outlined in Richardson's Athlete Membership Agreement, but such a ban was deemed legally unenforceable," AusCycling said. "This clause will be reviewed for future competitor contracts.

Britain won silver in the Men's team sprint at the 2024 Olympic Games ahead of Australia, but in individual men's sprints, Richardson competed ahead of Britain's Jack Carlin to secure silver. In the men's race, Carlin crashed, Richardson was in 2nd place, and then-Australian teammate Matthew Gretzer won bronze. Gretzer retired after Paris.