The women's sprint at the 2008 Summer Olympics

2008 Summer Olympics

The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, was a major international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008. A total of 11,028 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees competed in 28 sports and 302 events...

took place on August 19 at the Laoshan Velodrome

Laoshan Velodrome

The Laoshan Velodrome is a velodrome that is located in Laoshan, Shijingshan District, Beijing, China. It was built for the 2008 Summer Olympics. The venue was tested during the UCI Track World Cup in December 2007....

.

This track cycling

Track cycling

Track cycling is a bicycle racing sport usually held on specially built banked tracks or velodromes using track bicycles....

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.

Preliminaries

200 metre time trial. All twelve cyclists advanced to the first round; the preliminary was purely for seeding.

Rank	Rider	Time	Average Speed (km/h)
1		10.963 OR	65.675
2		11.106	64.829
3		11.140	64.631
4		11.167	64.475
5		11.222	64.159
6		11.365	63.352
7		11.372	63.313
8		11.400	63.157
9		11.462	62.816
10		11.533	62.429
11		11.544	62.370
12		12.134	59.337

First round

The twelve cyclists were paired based on their preliminary round rankings, 1 vs. 12, 2 vs. 11, and so on, in head-to-head 200 metre matches, with the winners advancing to the second round and the losers to the repechage.
Match 1

Name	Time	Average speed (km/h)
	11.736	61.349

Match 2

Name	Time	Average speed (km/h)
	11.410	63.102

Match 3

Name	Time	Average speed (km/h)
	11.663	61.733

Match 4

Name	Time	Average speed (km/h)
	12.155	59.234
	REL

Match 5

Name	Time	Average speed (km/h)
	11.955	60.225

Match 6

Name	Time	Average speed (km/h)
	11.607	62.031

Repechage

The sixlosers from the first round were put into two three-rider 200 metre matches, with the winner of each advancing to the next round.
Match 1

Name	Time	Average speed (km/h)
	11.871	60.652

Match 2

Name	Time	Average speed (km/h)
	12.123	59.391

Quarterfinals

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

Name	Time (Race 1)	Time (Race 2)
	11.389	11.672

Match 2

Name	Time (Race 1)	Time (Race 2)
	11.501	11.627

Match 3

Name	Time (Race 1)	Time (Race 2)
	11.716	12.108

Match 4

Name	Time (Race 1)	Time (Race 2)
	11.944	11.767

Semifinals

The four cyclists qualified this far were paired again for a best two-out-of-three series of 200 metre races. Guo Shuang was relegated for having deemed to have illegally manoeuvred Anna Meares, after having jostled her in their third and decisive sprint.

Match 1

Name	Time (Race 1)	Time (Race 2)
	11.537	11.885

Match 2

Name	Time (Race 1)	Time (Race 2)	Time (Race 3)
		11.578	11.617
	11.629		REL

9th—12th place classifcation race

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

Name	Time	Average speed (km/h)	Rank
	12.192	59.055	9
			10
			11
			12

Finals

The winners from the semifinals were paired to race for gold and silver, and the losers from that round raced for bronze. Each match was again the best two-out-of-three 200 metre races.

Bronze medal match

Name	Time (Race 1)	Time (Race 2)	Rank
	11.420	11.617
			4

Gold medal match

Name	Time (Race 1)	Time (Race 2)	Rank
	11.363	11.118

5th—8th place classification race

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

Name	Time	Average speed (km/h)	Rank
	12.264	58.708	5
			6
			7
	REL		8