So you want to compete in the Olympics in track bike racing? Well, despite the large number of events in this cycling discipline — ten total events — each country is allowed to bring just a relative few athletes to complete. But your chances are as good as anyone else, so if you want to make the team, it’s important to know how the process works to select these elite athletes.
First of all, the International Olympic Committee has authorized only 500 total athletes for all countries for the four cycling disciplines — road, track, BMX and mountain biking. Then the IOC breaks down the number of cyclists from each country who may enter a specific event in track cycling. Ten total events planned, for both individual and teams, and of these seven are for men, and three are for women. The maximum numbers of riders in each event from a given country are:
- Sprint/Keirin/individual pursuit: maximum 2 men and 2 women from each country per event
That breakdown totals 11 men and 3 women for each country competing specifically for track events. One wildcard is that the IOC allows countries to use athletes from other cycling disciplines to compete in events provided that the max number of participation from each country and event are not exceeded. So, it’s not likely that you’ll see a BMX racer out riding in the Team Pursuit, but in theory it could happen.
How Athletes Are Selected To Compete
The International Cycling Union (UCI) is the primary body that sanctions and certifies bike racing around the world, and it is through these events that the IOC has centered its selection process, which is fairly straightfoward. Heavy emphasis is placed on competing and winning at World Championship and World Cup events, and 14 total individual or team competitors are taken from each, plus 4 more from the “B” World Championships. That means 32 total entrants (individuals or teams, depending on the event) are drawn from this group to compete in the men’s events: team sprint, sprint , Keirin, team pursuit, individual pursuit, points race and Madison.
The second criterion for selecting entrants is the UCI final individual rankings, and this is a much bigger pool, totaling 121 cyclists. For instance, in the team sprint (3 riders per team) the top ten teams are selected, which alone produces 30 riders. Here’s how the rest of the list goes.
- Team sprint (3 riders) – top ten teams
- Sprint – top 5 ranked
- Keirin – top 9 ranked
- Team pursuit (5 riders) – top eight teams
- Individual pursuit – top 5 ranked
- Madison (2 riders) top 13 teams
- Points race – top 6 ranked
