Track cycling at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games

Six events, 12 gold medals up for grabs, but what exactly are the team pursuit, sprint, Madison, omnium, keirin and team sprint?

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Published: Wednesday, 31 July 2024 at 13:00 PM

Track cycling returns to the limelight at the Paris Olympics, with a week of competition from Monday 5 August to Sunday 11 August at the French Vélodrome National. Built in 2014, the velodrome sits on Rue Laurent Fignon in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines to the west of Paris.

With at least one gold medal up for grabs on every day of track cycling action – and a total of 12 golds in all – there will be plenty to enjoy from the Paris Olympics track cycling events.

There are six events, split into men’s and women’s races: the team pursuit, omnium, keirin, madison, sprint and team sprint.

While track cycling aficionados follow the sport religiously, the beauty of the Olympics is that new and casual audiences can become fixated by the action too, thanks largely to round-the-clock TV coverage.

So, if you’re new to the sport or just need a track cycling refresher, here’s a closer look at those six events and when they’re taking place.

Team pursuit track cycling explained

The team pursuit offers spectacular racing. (Photo by Yu Chun Christopher Wong/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images)

A long-standing Olympic favourite, the men’s team pursuit will be raced at the Games for the 26th time. The women’s event is a more recent addition, this being the fourth Games at which it will be contested.

The team pursuit involves two teams of four cyclists, racing 16 laps (4,000m) of the track, starting on opposite sides. There are two ways to claim victory.

The winner is the team that finishes the 16 laps fastest or the team that catches the other before the race is completed.

Times are taken on the third cyclist to cross the line, with no need for the fourth rider in each team to finish.

At the Olympic Games, the tournament is contested over three rounds. The qualifying round is a time trial, with only one team on track at a time. Only the top four teams can compete for the gold medal, with teams fifth and lower only able to reach the bronze final at best.

In the next round, the fastest team takes on the fourth fastest, and the second and third ride against each other – with the winner of each match-up progressing to the gold medal final.

The bottom four teams are also seeded against each other, and the two fastest teams not to reach the gold-medal final contest the bronze-medal final.

In the finals, there are the two medal finals, as well as a placings final to determine who finishes fifth and sixth, and seventh and eighth.

Paris 2024 Team pursuit dates

Team sprint track cycling explained

The team sprint is a fast-paced event. (Photo by PETER PARKS/AFP via Getty Images)

The men’s team sprint gold is currently held by the Netherlands, with Team GB taking silver in Tokyo.

The high-octane event is about all-out speed, with the men’s race incorporating teams of three riders over three laps, and the women’s two over two.

After an initial qualifying round to seed the teams, they then go head-to-head against each other for a place in the medal rounds.

Each rider must lead the way for one lap, before peeling off for the rider behind to take over.

The final time is taken from when the final rider finishes.

Teams start on opposite sides of the track, with the two fastest winners of the semi-finals progressing to the gold-medal race, and the next two fastest winners in the bronze-medal race.

Paris 2024 team sprint dates

Omnium track cycling explained

Four different mass-start races make up the omnium. (Photo by PETER PARKS/AFP via Getty Images)

Possibly the most complicated of the six events, the omnium is a multiple-race event, which has undergone plenty of changes over its recent history.

First introduced in 2012, this will be the fourth time the event has been raced at the Olympics.

Previously a six-event race, three of the previous events were dropped and a new one added for the Tokyo Olympics. The same format has been kept for Paris.

The four races of the omnium are:

Riders score points according to their finishing places in the first three events (the points earned within the tempo race do not count overall), plus the points they earn in the final points race.

Paris 2024 Omnium dates

Keirin track cycling explained

The Keirin starts off with motor-paced laps, although the dernys used are now electric. (Photo by PETER PARKS/AFP via Getty Images)

The keirin was born in Japan for gambling purposes shortly after the Second World War and is still very popular there. It became an official Olympic event in 2000 and the women’s event was added in 2012.

Keirin literally means ‘racing cycle’, and the event sees riders follow a pace motorcycle for three laps, before another three laps unpaced.

The first round for both the men and women consists of five heats of six cyclists, with the top two in each heat progressing to the second round and the others going into the repechages.

In the repechages – four heats of five cyclists – the top two in each heat join the riders already qualified for the second round, with everyone else’s event over.

The second round is the quarter-finals, with three heats of six cyclists, the top four in each going through to the semi-finals.

This sets up two semi-finals of six riders each, from which the top three advance to the medal final.

The bottom three in each heat contest the seventh to 12th place ranking final, while the top three in each go wheel-to-wheel for the medals.

Paris 2024 keirin dates

Sprint track cycling explained

Great Britain's Emma Finucane (L) competes against France's Mathilde Gros in the women's Sprint final event during the Track Cycling Nations Cup in Hong Kong on March 16, 2024. (Photo by Peter PARKS / AFP) (Photo by PETER PARKS/AFP via Getty Images)
Sprints are about tactics, then an all-out race to the line. (Photo by PETER PARKS/AFP via Getty Images) – PETER PARKS/AFP via Getty Images

The match sprint is possibly the most tactical of the six events, and a bit of a misnomer given that for much of the race the two riders on track are doing anything but sprinting.

The competition begins at high speed, with a flying-start 200m time trial.

The top 24 cyclists from qualifying are then seeded into 12 heats, from where the match sprints begin.

The match sprints are highly tactical battles, whereby the riders start side-by-side and race over three laps of the track.

Much of the race is about trying to manoeuvre the other rider into a disadvantageous position before an extraordinary explosive burst of speed for the final 200m.

At the Olympic Games, the 12 winners of the first round go straight to round two and the 12 losers go into the repechages – four heats, with three riders in each, from which the winners also move to round two.

Round two pairs 16 cyclists into eight heats, with the eight winners advancing to the next round and the losers going into the second repechages (four heats of two riders in each).

The 12 remaining riders contest six heats in the third round, with the six losers split into two heats for the repechages to form the quarter-finals.

From there begin the best-two-of-three matches for each match-up, and the event is now a straight knock-out through to the medal finals.

Paris 2024 Sprint dates

Madison track cycling explained

Japan's Maho Kakita and Tsuyaka Uchino of Team Rakuten K Dreams compete in the women's Madison final event during the Track Cycling Nations Cup in Hong Kong on March 16, 2024. (Photo by Peter PARKS / AFP) (Photo by PETER PARKS/AFP via Getty Images)
The handsling is a feature of the Madison, although just a touch will do. (Photo by PETER PARKS/AFP via Getty Images) – PETER PARKS/AFP via Getty Images

The hand-slinging Madison race and the carnage of the tag-team points race over 200 laps is back for a second consecutive Olympics in Paris, after a hiatus from 2008. All 16 teams are on track at any one time, with one rider from each team in action and the other waiting to be tagged in.

Teams score points by either lapping the field or winning sprints – which occur every 10 laps, with points doubled for the final sprint.

To tag their team-mate in, they simply need to touch, but very often will handsling their opponent into the bunch so no momentum is lost by the changeover.

Paris 2024 Madison dates