The track cycling events at the Paris Olympics begin on Monday, August 5 with the first medals being awarded in the women’s team sprint at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome outside Paris.
The day’s racing begins at 11:00 CET with qualifying, where the eight nations who qualified for the women’s team sprint will face off against the clock to be seeded for the first round.
In the first round, the teams are paired off, 1st against 8th, 2nd against 7th, 3rd against 6th, and 4th against 5th. This round begins at 12:55 CET.
The teams with the best two times in the first round will compete for the gold and silver medals, while the third and fourth fastest winners in the first round will compete for the bronze medal, while the other four teams compete for final placing 5th-8th. The finals begin at 13:46 CET.
The 2024 Olympics marks the first time that the women will compete with three riders, each taking the lead of the team for one lap for a total of 750 metres. In previous Games, the women contested the team sprint with two riders over 500 metres.
Germany have been the top team in the women’s team sprint since taking silver to China at the Olympics in Tokyo. At the UCI World Championships in Glasgow last year, Emma Hinze, Lea Friedrich and Pauline Grabosch set the world record for the 750 metre women’s team sprint in taking their fourth straight world title in this event.
Great Britain have been the top performers during the Nations Cup over the past year, making huge strides as Lauren Bell, Emma Finucane and Sophie Capewell perfect their technique and timing. However, Bell was injured in February in a starting gate incident at the Nations Cup in Adelaide and missed being selected for the Olympics. The more experienced Katy Marchant will appear in the team in Paris, instead.
China’s Bao Shanju, Guo Yufang and Yuan Liying will undoubtedly be fierce competitors as defending champions, but fell behind Great Britain at Worlds after taking silver in 2022.
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