What are the track cycling disciplines at Paris 2024? Who are the favourites for gold?

The 250m banked track of the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome, which will host the opening round of the 2024 UCI Track Champions League, will be the setting for the seven days of racing. And with gold medals on the line during every single day of racing, it’s set to be a pulsating contest.

The action kicks off with the women’s team sprint on Monday, August 5 and concludes with the final stage of the women’s omnium just hours before the closing ceremony on Sunday, August 11.

From breathless sprinting disciplines to all-out endurance, here’s a breakdown of what to expect on the boards at Paris 2024.

TEAM SPRINT

The team-based sprint event sees groups of three riders cover three laps of the velodrome as quickly as they can from a standing start. The race format will also be the first two gold medals that are decided on the track, with the men’s team sprint a day after the women’s on Tuesday, August 6.

Reigning women’s UCI World Champions Germany set the world record back in 2021 and are favourites to battle it out for top spot once more. Team Great Britain could only manage silver at the 2023 UCI World Championships in Glasgow, and Sophie Capewell, Emma Finucane and Katy Marchant will be looking to make amends in Paris. 

In the men’s, it’s hard to look beyond the Netherlands. The reigning Olympic and UCI World Champions are led by the double UCI Track Champions League sprint champion Harrie Lavreysen, but Team Great Britain’s Jack Carlin, Ed Lowe and Hamish Turnbull will be looking to spoil the Dutch party and improve on the team’s silver from Tokyo 2020.

TEAM PURSUIT

Team sprint settled, Wednesday, August 7 sees the turn of the team-based endurance event – Team Pursuit. Held over 16 laps of the velodrome, each team starts with four riders who crank up the pace to a lactic acid-inducing tempo as they try to cover the 4km distance as quickly as they can. Three riders have to finish the event, with the clock stopped when the final crosses the line.

Again, this is set to be a straight shootout between world champions Great Britain and Olympic champions Germany, but with Britain’s endurance linchpin Katie Archibald breaking her leg in two places just weeks before the Olympic Games, there are question marks over how settled the team is.

Less than an hour before, it is the turn of the men’s team pursuit, where reigning Olympic champions Italy’s Filippo Ganna is expected to add to the silver he’s already won at Paris 2024 in the men’s individual time trial on the road.

KEIRIN

One of the most engaging formats on the track, the keirin sees a group of five riders led around the track by a derny – essentially a small motorbike. As the laps progress, the derny gradually picks up the pace before reaches 50kph and pulls off the track, which is when the race-proper starts. A three-lap dash for the line, it’s fast and furious and often decided by a photo finish.

The women’s keirin concludes on Thursday, August 8, where UCI World Champion, New Zealand’s Ellesse Andrews, will be targeting Olympic gold to go with her rainbow bands and first place in the 2023 UCI Track Champions League sprint competition.

The men’s finishes up on Sunday, August 11, and will witness the changing of the guard, with it the first Olympic Games since reigning champion and Great Britain’s most decorated Olympian Jason Kenny retired – his victory at Tokyo 2020 his seventh and final gold medal in a career that stretched back to Beijing 2008. 

SPRINT

Friday, August 9 will see the return of the fast men, as the individual sprint races take to the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome. A three-lap contest where competitors try to psyche each other out with track stands and gravity-defying riding on the velodrome’s banked berms until the final 250m, it’s a game of cat and mouse where the winner is raw power.

Just like in the team sprint, it's hard to look past the Netherlands and their superstar sprinter Harrie Lavreysen, who will be aiming to make it back-to-back golds in the event. However, he will have to contend with one of his biggest rivals in recent years, Australia's Matthew Richardson. 

Richardson is one of the few athletes in the world who has managed to defeat the Dutch legend, having done so at the 2022 UCI Track Champions League, where he claimed the overall men's sprint title.

The women’s sprint is one of the final medals to be decided on Sunday, August 11, and Team Great Britain’s Emma Finucane is a clear favourite after her UCI World Championship win in Glasgow last summer. But she will have to face local superstar Mathilde Gros, who achieved a symbolic victory in front of her home crowd at the 2022 UCI Track Champions League. Gros has been intensely focused on the Olympics, aiming for the gold medal she's been dreaming of winning on home soil.

MADISON

The longest race of the track discipline kicks off with the women’s event on Friday, August 9. A 120-lap (or 200-lap for the men’s madison) points race, 16 pairs attempt to rack up as many points as they can through intermediate sprints, lapping the field, and avoiding being lapped. Only one rider is in the race at any one time but can be substituted using a thrilling slingshot move that propels their team-mate forwards.

Team Great Britain are reigning Olympic and UCI World Champions in the women’s event, but with both Katie Archibald (injured) and Laura Trott (retired) not at Paris 2024, it remains to be seen whether their replacements can retain gold on Friday, August 9.

The men’s the following day is a more open affair. UCI World Champions Netherlands will fancy their chances, while Great Britain will be hoping to go one better than their silver at Tokyo 2020.