Omnium, Women

The omnium was another new event for women at the 2012 Summer Olympics, having only appeared at the World Championships in 2009. Canadian Tara Whitten had been fairly dominant in the discipline since its inception, winning the world title in 2010 and 2011, after having come in second in 2009 to Josephine Tomic. In 2012, however, Great Britain’s Laura Trott finally caught up to Whitten and earned the World Championship crown. Trott was a crowd favorite, having taken up cycling to recover from a sickly childhood: she was born with a collapsed lung, spent many months in intensive care, and was eventually diagnosed with asthma. For the past two years she had been a strong factor in Great Britain’s victories in the team pursuit, helping them win gold in the event at the 2010 and 2011 European Championships and the 2011 and 2012 World Championships. With these victories in hand, Trott set her sights on obtaining gold in London.

The British squad, along with Trott, emerged victorious in the Olympic team pursuit and, two days later, Trott was already on her way to capturing a second gold medal, winning the flying lap, the first of the six events that constitute the omnium. She faltered somewhat in the 20km points race, finishing tenth, but managed to chalk up another victory in the elimination race, leaving her in first place with 12 points following the opening day of competition. Behind her was Sarah Hammer of the United States, who had an equal number of points, having finished fifth in both the flying lap and the points race, but coming in second behind Trott in the elimination race. Hammer was a four time individual pursuit World Champion, a discipline she had taken up only when individual pursuit was removed from the Olympic program, leaving her in a good position to overtake Trott on the second day, where individual pursuit was the first event. She finished first in that competition, with Trott in second, and then took second place in the 10km scratch race, behind Annette Edmondson of Australia, who had been third in the rankings at the end of day one. With Trott having finished one position below Hammer in the scratch, Hammer enjoyed a two point advantage going into the final event, the 500m time trial. Even a personal best time of 35.900, however, was not enough for Hammer to dethrone Trott, who finished first, and three positions ahead her American rival, sufficient to claim Olympic gold. Hammer settled for silver while Edmondson, a relative newcomer, took home bronze. Trott’s gold medal, as well as her earlier victory in the women’s team pursuit, gave her the distinction of having won every European Championship, World Championship, and Olympic event that she has entered, for a total of eight at the conclusion of the London Games.