Cycling at the 2024 Summer Olympics

Cycling
at the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad
Pictograms from top, left to right: BMX freestyle, BMX racing, road, mountain biking, and track cycling.
VenuePont d'Iéna (road race)
Vélodrome de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (track and BMX racing)
Élancourt Hill (mountain biking)
Invalides (road time trial start)
Place de la Concorde (BMX freestyle)
Pont Alexandre III (road time trial finish)
Polygone de Vincennes [fr] (road training)
Dates27 July – 11 August 2024
No. of events22 (11 men, 11 women)
Competitors514
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2028 →
Cycling at the
2024 Summer Olympics
List of cyclists
Qualification
Road cycling
Road racemenwomen
Time trialmenwomen
Track cycling
Sprintmenwomen
Team sprintmenwomen
Keirinmenwomen
Team pursuitmenwomen
Madisonmenwomen
Omniummenwomen
Mountain biking
Cross-countrymenwomen
BMX
BMX racingmenwomen
BMX freestylemenwomen

The cycling competitions of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris occurred at four different venues (Pont d'Iéna for road and time trial races; Vélodrome de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines for track cycling and BMX racing; Élancourt Hill for mountain biking; and Place de la Concorde for the BMX freestyle), from 27 July to 11 August, featuring twenty-two events across five disciplines.[1][2][3][4][5]

Cycling competitions have been contested in every Summer Olympics edition since the modern Olympiad revived in 1896, along with athletics, artistic gymnastics, fencing and swimming.

A total of 514 cyclists have competed at Paris 2024 with an equal split between men and women for the first time in the sport's history, attaining the goal of gender equality as one of the objectives ratified by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI). Having already been achieved in mountain biking, BMX racing, and BMX freestyle on the Tokyo 2020 program, several significant changes were instituted in the road and track cycling, with some men's quota places transferred to the women's side and with the number of riders in women's team sprint increasing from two to three. Conforming to the recommendations of the International Olympic Committee's 2020 agenda, cycling had fourteen fewer places at these Games than those in 2020, a reduction that affected road racing and mountain biking. Nonetheless, the distribution of an extra place for track cycling and six in BMX freestyle, with the number of athletes competing in the men's and women's events increasing from nine to twelve, partly counteracted the moderate decrease in the cycling spots offered at these Games.[6]

Despite the modest quota decrease, cycling featured a total of twenty-two medal events across five disciplines, similar to the 2020 program format.[6] While the sport continued to run on all days between the opening and closing ceremonies, Paris 2024 witnessed some scheduling changes contrary to the previous edition; hence, the men's and women's individual time trial medalists were awarded on the first day of the competition.[7]

For road cycling there was a special training venue, Polygone de Vincennes [fr], so the cyclists were not dependent on the (busy) roads of Paris.[8]

The 20-year reign of Great Britain at the top of the Olympic cycling table was finally broken, as home nation France topped a tightly contested table with three gold medals, tied with Australia, Netherlands, United States, with Belgium, New Zealand and Great Britain just one gold medal behind. Despite the significant drop in gold medals, Great Britain won the most overall medals, with 11.

  1. ^ "Paris 2024 – Road Cycling". Paris 2024. Archived from the original on 9 February 2023. Retrieved 26 December 2022.
  2. ^ "Paris 2024 – Track Cycling". Paris 2024. Archived from the original on 4 June 2023. Retrieved 26 December 2022.
  3. ^ "Paris 2024 – Mountain Biking". Paris 2024. Archived from the original on 26 December 2022. Retrieved 26 December 2022.
  4. ^ "Paris 2024 – BMX Racing". Paris 2024. Archived from the original on 29 March 2023. Retrieved 26 December 2022.
  5. ^ "Paris 2024 – BMX Freestyle". Paris 2024. Archived from the original on 26 December 2022. Retrieved 26 December 2022.
  6. ^ a b "Cycling achieves full gender parity in terms of athlete numbers at the Olympic Games Paris 2024". Union Cycliste Internationale. 7 December 2020. Retrieved 26 December 2022.
  7. ^ "Olympic Games Paris 2024: cycling to crown two Olympic Champions on first day of medal competitions". Union Cycliste Internationale. 13 April 2022. Retrieved 26 December 2022.
  8. ^ "Team Leaders' Guide Road Cycling" (PDF). Paris 2024. p. 47-53.