Cycling at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Women's team pursuit

The women's team pursuit event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place on 2 and 3 August 2021 at the Izu Velodrome.[1] 32 cyclists (8 teams of 4) from 8 nations competed.[2]

Women's team pursuit
at the Games of the XXXII Olympiad
Olympic track cycling
VenuesIzu Velodrome
Dates2–3 August 2021
Competitors38 from 8 nations
Teams8
Winning time4:04.249 WR
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Franziska Brauße
Lisa Brennauer
Lisa Klein
Mieke Kröger
 Germany
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Katie Archibald
Laura Kenny
Neah Evans
Josie Knight
Elinor Barker
 Great Britain
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Megan Jastrab
Jennifer Valente
Chloé Dygert
Emma White
Lily Williams
 United States
← 2016
2024 →

Background

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This will be the 3rd appearance of the event, which has been held at every Summer Olympics since its introduction in 2012.

The reigning Olympic champions are Katie Archibald, Laura Kenny, Elinor Barker, and Joanna Rowsell Shand of Great Britain; Great Britain has won both prior Olympic events (with Kenny and Rowsell Shand on both teams). The reigning (2020) World Champions are Jennifer Valente, Chloé Dygert, Emma White, and Lily Williams of the United States. Barker and Archibald were on the British 2020 World Championships silver medal team; Dygert and Valente were on the American 2016 Olympic silver medal team.

Russia, Germany, China, Great Britain, Australia, and the Netherlands are traditionally strong track cycling nations.[3]

Qualification

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A National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter up to 1 team of 4 cyclists in the team pursuit. Quota places are allocated to the NOC, which selects the cyclists. Qualification is entirely through the 2018–20 UCI nation rankings. The eight top nations in the rankings qualify for the team pursuit event. These nations also automatically qualified a team in the Madison.[2] Because qualification was complete by the end of the 2020 UCI Track Cycling World Championships on 1 March 2020 (the last event that contributed to the 2018–20 rankings), qualification was unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Competition format

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A team pursuit race involves two teams of four cyclists. Each team starts at opposite sides of the track. There are two ways to win: finish 16 laps (4 km) before the other team does or catch the other team. The time for each team is determined by the third cyclist to cross the finish line; the fourth cyclist does not need to finish.

The tournament consists of three rounds:[4][5]

  • Qualifying round: Each team does a time trial for seeding. Only the top 4 teams are able to compete for the gold medal; the 5th place and lower teams can do no better than bronze.
  • First round: Four heats of 2 teams each. The top 4 teams are seeded against each other (1 vs. 4, 2 vs. 3) while the bottom 4 teams are seeded against each other (5 vs. 8, 6 vs. 7). The winners of the top bracket advance to the gold medal final. The other 6 teams are ranked by time and advance to finals based on those rankings.
  • Finals: Four finals, each with 2 teams. There is a gold medal final (gold and silver medals), a bronze medal final (bronze medal and 4th place), and 5th/6th and 7th/8th classification finals.

Schedule

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All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)[6]

Date Time Round
2 August 15:54 Qualifying
3 August 15:30 First round
17:05 Finals

Results

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Qualifying

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Rank Country Cyclists Result[7] Notes
1   Germany Franziska Brauße
Lisa Brennauer
Lisa Klein
Mieke Kröger
4:07.307 WR
2   Great Britain Katie Archibald
Laura Kenny
Elinor Barker
Josie Knight
4:09.022
3   United States Jennifer Valente
Chloé Dygert
Emma White
Lily Williams
4:10.118
4   Italy Elisa Balsamo
Letizia Paternoster
Rachele Barbieri
Vittoria Guazzini
4:11.666
5   France Victoire Berteau
Marion Borras
Valentine Fortin
Marie Le Net
4:12.502
6   New Zealand Holly Edmondston
Bryony Botha
Kirstie James
Jaime Nielsen
4:12.536
7   Australia Georgia Baker
Annette Edmondson
Ashlee Ankudinoff
Alexandra Manly
4:13.571
8   Canada Allison Beveridge
Jasmin Duehring
Annie Foreman-Mackey
Georgia Simmerling
4:15.832

First round

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Rank Heat Country Cyclists Result[8] Notes
1 4   Germany Franziska Brauße
Lisa Brennauer
Lisa Klein
Mieke Kröger
4:06.159 QG, WR
2 3   Great Britain Katie Archibald
Laura Kenny
Neah Evans
Josie Knight
4:06.748 QG
3 3   United States Megan Jastrab
Jennifer Valente
Chloé Dygert
Emma White
4:07.562 QB
4 2   Canada Allison Beveridge
Ariane Bonhomme
Annie Foreman-Mackey
Georgia Simmerling
4:09.249 QB
5 1   Australia Georgia Baker
Annette Edmondson
Ashlee Ankudinoff
Maeve Plouffe
4:09.992
6 4   Italy Elisa Balsamo
Letizia Paternoster
Rachele Barbieri
Vittoria Guazzini
4:10.063
7 1   New Zealand Holly Edmondston
Bryony Botha
Rushlee Buchanan
Jaime Nielsen
4:10.223
8 2   France Marion Borras
Coralie Demay
Valentine Fortin
Marie Le Net
4:11.888

Finals

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Rank Country Cyclists Result[9] Notes
Gold medal final
    Germany Franziska Brauße
Lisa Brennauer
Lisa Klein
Mieke Kröger
4:04.242 WR
    Great Britain Katie Archibald
Laura Kenny
Neah Evans
Josie Knight
4:10.607
Bronze medal final
    United States Megan Jastrab
Jennifer Valente
Chloé Dygert
Emma White
4:08.040
4   Canada Allison Beveridge
Ariane Bonhomme
Annie Foreman-Mackey
Georgia Simmerling
4:10.552
Fifth place final
5   Australia Georgia Baker
Annette Edmondson
Ashlee Ankudinoff
Maeve Plouffe
4:11.041
6   Italy Elisa Balsamo
Letizia Paternoster
Martina Alzini
Vittoria Guazzini
4:11.108
Seventh place final
7   France Victoire Berteau
Marion Borras
Valentine Fortin
Marie Le Net
4:10.388
8   New Zealand Holly Edmondston
Bryony Botha
Kirstie James
Jaime Nielsen
4:10.600

References

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  1. ^ "Cycling Track Competition Schedule". Tokyo 2020. Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 18 November 2020.
  2. ^ a b "Qualification System – Games of the XXXII Olympiad – Road Cycling" (PDF). Union Cycliste Internationale. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  3. ^ "Olympic Track Cycling at Tokyo 2020: Top Five Things to Know". Retrieved 28 June 2021.
  4. ^ "UCI CYCLING REGULATIONS PART 3 TRACK RACES" (PDF). UCI. 6 December 2020. Retrieved 18 November 2020.
  5. ^ Liam Nee (26 March 2021). "Cycling 101: Competition format". NBC. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
  6. ^ "Cycling Track – Competition Schedule" (PDF). olympics.com. TOCOG. 12 July 2021. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 August 2021. Retrieved 1 August 2021.
  7. ^ "Cycling Track – Women's Team Pursuit – Qualifying Results" (PDF). olympics.com. TOCOG. 2 August 2021. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 August 2021. Retrieved 2 August 2021.
  8. ^ "Cycling Track – Women's Team Pursuit – First Round Results" (PDF). olympics.com. TOCOG. 3 August 2021. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 August 2021. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
  9. ^ "Cycling Track – Women's Team Pursuit – Final Classification" (PDF). olympics.com. TOCOG. 3 August 2021. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 August 2021. Retrieved 3 August 2021.