Young Indian track cyclists have recently performed well on the Junior circuit. Will they be able to clinch India’s first quota in Cycling? Let us look at the qualification process for Track Cycling at Paris 2024 Olympics.
Track Cycling at Paris Olympics
There will be 12 events in Track Cycling at Paris Olympics – 6 in Men & 6 in Women.
If you want to understand a bit about the sport of track cycling, read this.
A total of 190 athletes will qualify for Track Cycling. A nation can send a maximum of 8 male and 8 female track cyclists subject to following norms:
A maximum of 1 male and 1 female cyclists can be added per nation in a different cycling discipline and thus taking the total number to 8.
Qualification Process:
Quotas in Track Cycling will be allocated based on World Ranking as on 15th April, 2024. The time period for accumulating ranking points is between 9th July 2022 to 15th April 2024. Ranking points can be earned via following 3 events:
- Last 2 Continental Championships. For ranking points, continental championships have a weight of 0.75
- Best 2 results in Track Nations Cup in 2023 and 2024.
- 2023 World Track Championship. For ranking points, World Championship has a weight of 1.5
Team Sprint Event:
Top 8 teams as per World Ranking will qualify in each of Men’s and Women’s event. 3 track cyclists will qualify per team.
Team Pursuit Event:
10 highest ranked teams will qualify. There will be 4 track cyclists per team.
Madison:
A maximum of 15 teams will qualify for Madison event. 10 quotas will be given to the teams who have qualified via Team Sprint ranking. Then 5 highest ranked teams who have not qualified yet will be given a quota. Each team will be represented by 2 athletes in Madison event.
Omnium:
A maximum of 22 athletes will take part in Omnium event. Each of the 15 nations who have qualified a team in Madison event will get 1 quota for Omnium. In addition to this, 7 highest ranked nations, subject to continental representation clause, will get a quota in Omnium event. 1 athletes per nation will qualify for Omnium.
Individual Sprint & Keirin
A maximum of 30 athletes will qualify for each of Sprint and Keirin event. All nations who have a quota in Team Sprint event, can enter 2 athletes in each of the sprint and Keirin event. In addition to this, the highest ranked 7 nations who do not have a team sprint quota get 1 quota in each of sprint and Keirin event. This is subject to continental representation norms been fulfilled.
Timelines:
2023 World Track Cycling Championship – 3-13 August 2023
World Ranking cut-off – 15 April 2024
India’s chances of qualification:
This is going to depend on how our young track cyclists perform in the next 18 months. Currently, Indian Men’s Sprint team is ranked 9th in the World (ranking as of 13 August, 2022). So they are just 1 spot outside the eventual ranking cut-off.
