Cycling Track at the 2012 Summer Olympics

Dates 2 – 7 August 2012
Medal Events 10

The track cycling at the 2012 Summer Olympics were held at the London Velopark, one of the city’s newly constructed venues for the Games. The velodrome was indoors, with a 250.0 metre wooden track.

There were a number of changes to the cycling program from the 2008 Olympics, most notably that the Madison for the men and individual pursuit and points race for both women and men were replaced by the multi-discipline event known as the omnium. Many cyclists who competed in individual pursuit protested this move and had to change their training to accommodate this development. The other significant factor in this program change was the equalization of the events for men and women, both now with five.

Although officially intended to level the field between endurance and sprint riders, many Britons saw this, as well as a rule limiting one entry per NOC in the track events, as a way of curbing the nation’s dominance in the sport; in 2008 they had won 8 of the 18 gold medals, four times as many as any other nation, and 14 medals overall, twice as many as runner-up France. If this had indeed been the UCI’s intention it was unsuccessful, for Britain matched its gold medal haul from 2008 and nearly tied its overall count, shy only two silver medals.

They were aided in this by the addition of three new events to the women’s program, the team sprint, the team pursuit, and the keirin, of which Britain won the latter two. Their dominance was even more complete at their home Olympics, for no other nation managed more than one gold medal in the overall tournament.

The big winners for Britain were Jason Kenny, Laura Trott, and Chris Hoy, each with two victories in London, followed closely by Vicki Pendleton (one gold, one silver) and Ed Clancy (one gold, one bronze). Hoy’s gold medals were particularly significant as they gave him six overall, allowing him to overtake the national record set by rower Steven Redgrave from 1984 through 2000 to become Britain’s most decorated Olympian.

Events

Event Status Date Participants NOCs
Sprint, Men Olympic 4 – 6 August 2012 17 17
Keirin, Men Olympic 7 August 2012 18 18
Team Sprint, Men Olympic 2 August 2012 30 10
Team Pursuit, 4,000 metres, Men Olympic 2 – 3 August 2012 44 10
Omnium, Men Olympic 4 – 5 August 2012 18 18
Sprint, Women Olympic 5 – 7 August 2012 18 18
Keirin, Women Olympic 3 August 2012 18 18
Team Sprint, Women Olympic 2 August 2012 20 10
Team Pursuit, 3,000 metres, Women Olympic 3 – 4 August 2012 32 10
Omnium, Women Olympic 6 – 7 August 2012 18 18
173 (100/73) 33 (28/24)

Medals

Event Gold Silver Bronze
Sprint, Men Jason KennyGBR Grégory BaugéFRA Shane PerkinsAUS
Keirin, Men Chris HoyGBR Maximilian LevyGER Teun Mulder
Simon van Velthooven
NED
NZL
Team Sprint, Men Great BritainGBR FranceFRA GermanyGER
Team Pursuit, 4,000 metres, Men Great BritainGBR AustraliaAUS New ZealandNZL
Omnium, Men Lasse Norman HansenDEN Bryan CoquardFRA Ed ClancyGBR
Sprint, Women Anna MearesAUS Vicki PendletonGBR Guo ShuangCHN
Keirin, Women Vicki PendletonGBR Guo ShuangCHN Sarah LeeHKG
Team Sprint, Women GermanyGER People's Republic of ChinaCHN AustraliaAUS
Team Pursuit, Women Great BritainGBR United StatesUSA CanadaCAN
Omnium, Women Laura TrottGBR Sarah HammerUSA Annette EdmondsonAUS

Medal table

NOC Gold Silver Bronze Total
Great Britain GBR 7 1 1 9
Australia AUS 1 1 3 5
Germany GER 1 1 1 3
Denmark DEN 1 0 0 1
France FRA 0 3 0 3
People's Republic of China CHN 0 2 1 3
United States USA 0 2 0 2
New Zealand NZL 0 0 2 2
Canada CAN 0 0 1 1
Hong Kong, China HKG 0 0 1 1
Netherlands NED 0 0 1 1