The women's sprint at the 2008 Summer Olympics took place on August 19 at the Laoshan Velodrome.

This track cycling 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 OR65.675 2 11.10664.829 3 11.14064.631 4 11.16764.475 5 11.22264.159 6 11.36563.352 7 11.37263.313 8 11.40063.157 9 11.46262.816 10 11.53362.429 11 11.54462.370 12 12.13459.337

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 classification 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

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

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

References