December 1, 2006 – According to reports on the French website, 24heures, the cyclist who won road gold at Atlanta in 1996 will soon be behind bars. Swiss national, Pascal Richard, has been caught up in a scheme to defraud his insurance company and will consequently spend four months in jail.

The story behind all of this paints a sad picture of what it can be like for world-class athletes when they retire from professional sports. Richard was the cyclocross world champion in 1988 before switching to road cycling. In 1994, he won the “king of the mountains” jersey at the Giro and, in 1996 won a stage in the TDF. That same year, he won the men’s Olympic road race. After 15 years in cycling, Richard, had trouble reorientating his life; by 2002, Richard was not doing well.

That spring, Richard, now 42, was first “befriended” and then robbed of 200,000 francs by a con artist. His initial statement to the police omitted key facts and Richard made an insurance claim for the theft of two Rolex watches that he had already sold.

“I had a painful divorce with kids (involved). I was in a fragile psychological state and was not behaving normally. I was a victim of psychological manipulations (in this current fraud case),” claimed Richard, speaking in his defence.

“I pressed charges against the (guy who swindled me) and now I find myself in the defendant’s docket,” lamented Richard. His sentence includes four months behind bars and a two-year suspended sentence. His girlfriend received a-one month suspended sentence for false testimony.

“It’s thanks to my calf muscles that I won the money (that was stolen), and that makes this affair all that more painful. I was very naïve. (But) I got through this thing, and am stronger as a result,” added Richard.

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