Team Sprint, Men

Great Britain may have arrived in Rio as Olympic title holders, but they struggled in the years since London 2012 to replace retired six times Olympic champion Chris Hoy, and had never finished higher than fifth at any of the intervening World Championships. The favourites for the gold were New Zealand who had impressed in winning the world title earlier in the year in London ahead of a youthful Dutch trio.

To the surprise of their own supporters, the British team produced a performance the likes of which they had not duplicated since the London Olympics and set an Olympic record in the qualifying round. Even the New Zealanders could not match this time at their first attempt although they responded strongly by lowering the record to reach the final.

The final pitched the British and New Zealand against each other after being divided by little more than a tenth of a second on both previous rides. Ethan Mitchell produced a blistering start for the Kiwis and New Zealand led after lap one but Jason Kenny pegged the gap back before Callum Skinner produced the lap of his life to extend the British lead and clinch a third consecutive Olympic title for his nation. Kenny was a member of all three teams. France, meanwhile, defeated Australia for third place to clinch what was to be their only cycling medal of the entire Rio Olympics.