[In London, Rio, and Tokyo, I had been in bronze medal contention in the men's team sprint, and had come up empty. But Paris was different.

The Australian team of Gretzer, Matthew Richardson, and Lee Hoffman took to the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines National Velodrome to take on the local French contenders, who had won bronze in Tokyo. Australia won the bronze medal, and Glatzer took home the medal he had fought so hard for 12 years.

"After Tokyo, I almost gave up on the sport. I mean, having survived cancer, a major injury leading up to Tokyo, and not being able to prepare well for Tokyo made it a lot tougher," said the 31-year-old, who was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2019. 'Elite sport can be pretty brutal when you don't get the results you are aiming for. And I pushed through it and went into these Olympics with my teammates and knew we could do something great for Australia."

Of course, the dream was to compete for gold in the team sprint, but after the round ended, the Netherlands and Great Britain battled for the top two places With the right secured, only the bronze medal was within reach. However, after posting a 42.336 in the first round, Australia knew they would have to do better to avoid missing out on a medal for the fourth consecutive event.

"Lee and Riccio were just so fast, they just lit up right in front of me. I was confident that I could go faster if we got into the mix."

In the deciding race, Glatzer was the starter, Hoffman was second, and it was Richardson's turn. The result was a bronze medal-winning 41.597, followed by the French team with 41.993.

"I'm very proud of them as a team for putting up such a good time, and of us for taking the risk and making the decision," said Gretzer.

"We went in like a roll of the dice, by any means necessary to win a medal.

In other words, no matter what happens in the rest of the competition, Glatzer is also on the starting lists for the men's sprint and men's keirin and can walk away as an Olympic Games medalist.

"This bronze medal is like a gold medal to me," Glatzer said in an AusCycling release.

"Every time I've been in an Olympic team sprint final, I've lost to the bronze medal. It was very tough, but to finally be on the winner's side was very special."