TakeWorlds2 weeks ago
Michael Matthews outsprinted Mathieu van der Poel for silver at the 2026 UCI Road World Championships, thirteen seconds behind Brandon McNulty. Twice in the past two years he was told his career was over — once by a pulmonary embolism, once by both wrists broken in a training crash.
In June 2025, doctors found a pulmonary embolism during an altitude camp and warned Matthews that two or three more days at altitude could have killed him. Nine months later, a March 2026 training crash fractured both his wrists and severed tendons in his right thumb. He turned 36 the day before Montréal, calling it "probably my last opportunity to be world champion." A medal built on those two near-endings reads less like a comeback story and more like a refusal to stop.
Sources
"Probably my last opportunity to be world champion" - Michael Matthews pays emotional tribute to wife as comeback from pulmonary embolism and broken arm ends with Worlds silverMichael Matthews is ready for his Tour de France comebackMichael Matthews takes World Championship silver as McNulty stuns in Montréal - Bicycling Australia
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