Cycling at the 2008 Summer Olympics - Women's sprint

Infobox Olympic event
event = Women's Sprint
games = 2008 Summer


caption =
venue = Laoshan Velodrome
dates = August 17 (preliminaries—1st round) August 18 (quarterfinals—final)
competitors = 12
nations = 11
win_value = 11.363/11.118
gold = Victoria Pendleton
goldNOC = GBR
silver = Anna Meares
silverNOC = AUS
bronze = Shuang Guo
bronzeNOC = CHN
prev = 2004
next =

The women's sprint at the 2008 Summer Olympics took place on August 19 at the Laoshan Velodrome.

This track cycling event consisted of numerous rounds. The competition began with a time trial over 200 metres. The top 12 cyclists in that qualifying round were seeded into the 1/8 finals. There, they raced one-on-one. The six winners advanced to the quarterfinals, with the six losers getting another chance at the repechage. This repechage consisted of three-cyclist heats, with the two winners moving on to the quarterfinals.

Beginning with the quarterfinals, the head-to-head competitions switched to a best-of-three format. That format was also used for the semifinals and final. In addition, the bronze medal competition was a best-of-three match between the semifinal losers. The classification race for 5th to 8th places was a single race with all four cyclists competing. [http://en.beijing2008.cn/sports/cyclingtrack/n214431064.shtml]

Preliminaries

[http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/INF/CT/C73E1/CTW001900.shtml#CTW001900] 200 metre time trial. All twelve cyclists advanced to the first round; the preliminary was purely for seeding.

;Match 3;Match 6

Quarterfinals

[http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/INF/CT/C73E2/CTM001400.shtml#CTM001400] The eight cyclists qualified this far were paired for a best two-out-of-three series of 200 metre races. None of the pairings required a third race.

;Match 1;Match 4

9th—12th place classifcation race

[http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/INF/CT/C73E5/CTW001104.shtml#CTW001104] During the same session as the semifinals, the four cyclists who were eliminated in the repechage were put into a single four-rider 200 metre race to determine exact placings from ninth to twelfth.

;Classification race

5th—8th place classification race

[http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/INF/CT/C73E5/CTW001103.shtml#CTW001103] In the same session as the finals, the four cyclists who lost in the quarterfinals were put into one four-rider 200 metre race to determine exact placings from fifth to eighth.

;Classification race

References