Cycling at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Women's sprint
The women's sprint at the 2008Summer 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.
The twelve cyclists were paired based on their preliminary roundrankings, 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
11.736
61.349
;Match 2
Name
Time
Average speed
11.410
63.102
;Match 3
Name
Time
Average speed
11.663
61.733
;Match 4
Name
Time
Average speed
12.155
59.234
REL
;Match 5
Name
Time
Average speed
11.955
60.225
;Match 6
Name
Time
Average speed
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
11.871
60.652
;Match 2
Name
Time
Average speed
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
Time
11.389
11.672
;Match 2
Name
Time
Time
11.501
11.627
;Match 3
Name
Time
Time
11.716
12.108
;Match 4
Name
Time
Time
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
Time
11.537
11.885
;Match 2
Name
Time
Time
Time
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
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
Time
Rank
11.420
11.617
4
;Gold medal match
Name
Time
Time
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
