# Cycling at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Women's sprint

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 | Victoria Pendleton (GBR) | 10.963 OR | 65.675 |
| 2 | Guo Shuang (CHN) | 11.106 | 64.829 |
| 3 | Anna Meares (AUS) | 11.140 | 64.631 |
| 4 | Willy Kanis (NED) | 11.167 | 64.475 |
| 5 | Simona Krupeckaitė (LTU) | 11.222 | 64.159 |
| 6 | Clara Sanchez (FRA) | 11.365 | 63.352 |
| 7 | Natallia Tsylinskaya (BLR) | 11.372 | 63.313 |
| 8 | Jennie Reed (USA) | 11.400 | 63.157 |
| 9 | Lisandra Guerra (CUB) | 11.462 | 62.816 |
| 10 | Yvonne Hijgenaar (NED) | 11.533 | 62.429 |
| 11 | Svetlana Grankovskaya (RUS) | 11.544 | 62.370 |
| 12 | Sakie Tsukuda (JPN) | 12.134 | 59.337 |

## 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.
| Name | Time | Average speed (km/h) |
| Victoria Pendleton (GBR) | 11.736 | 61.349 |
| Sakie Tsukuda (JPN) | | |
| Name | Time | Average speed (km/h) |
| Guo Shuang (CHN) | 11.410 | 63.102 |
| Svetlana Grankovskaya (RUS) | | |
| Name | Time | Average speed (km/h) |
| Anna Meares (AUS) | 11.663 | 61.733 |
| Yvonne Hijgenaar (NED) | | |
| Name | Time | Average speed (km/h) |
| Willy Kanis (NED) | 12.155 | 59.234 |
| Lisandra Guerra (CUB) | REL | |
| Name | Time | Average speed (km/h) |
| Jennie Reed (USA) | 11.955 | 60.225 |
| Simona Krupeckaitė (LTU) | | |
| Name | Time | Average speed (km/h) |
| Clara Sanchez (FRA) | 11.607 | 62.031 |
| Natallia Tsylinskaya (BLR) | | |

### 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.
| Name | Time | Average speed (km/h) |
| Natallia Tsylinskaya (BLR) | 11.871 | 60.652 |
| Lisandra Guerra (CUB) | | |
| Sakie Tsukuda (JPN) | | |
| Name | Time | Average speed (km/h) |
| Simona Krupeckaitė (LTU) | 12.123 | 59.391 |
| Svetlana Grankovskaya (RUS) | | |
| Yvonne Hijgenaar (NED) | | |

## 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.
| Name | Time (Race 1) | Time (Race 2) |
| Victoria Pendleton (GBR) | 11.389 | 11.672 |
| Simona Krupeckaitė (LTU) | | |
| Name | Time (Race 1) | Time (Race 2) |
| Guo Shuang (CHN) | 11.501 | 11.627 |
| Natallia Tsylinskaya (BLR) | | |
| Name | Time (Race 1) | Time (Race 2) |
| Anna Meares (AUS) | 11.716 | 12.108 |
| Clara Sanchez (FRA) | | |
| Name | Time (Race 1) | Time (Race 2) |
| Willy Kanis (NED) | 11.944 | 11.767 |
| Jennie Reed (USA) | | |

## 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) |
| Victoria Pendleton (GBR) | 11.537 | 11.885 |
| Willy Kanis (NED) | | |

### Match 2

| Name | Time (Race 1) | Time (Race 2) | Time (Race 3) |
| Anna Meares (AUS) | | 11.578 | 11.617 |
| Guo Shuang (CHN) | 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 |
| Svetlana Grankovskaya (RUS) | 12.192 | 59.055 | 9 |
| Lisandra Guerra (CUB) | | | 10 |
| Yvonne Hijgenaar (NED) | | | 11 |
| Sakie Tsukuda (JPN) | | | 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 |
| Clara Sanchez (FRA) | 12.264 | 58.708 | 5 |
| Natallia Tsylinskaya (BLR) | | | 6 |
| Jennie Reed (USA) | | | 7 |
| Simona Krupeckaitė (LTU) | 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 |
| Guo Shuang (CHN) | 11.420 | 11.617 | |
| Willy Kanis (NED) | | | 4 |

#### Gold medal match

| Name | Time (Race 1) | Time (Race 2) | Rank |
| Victoria Pendleton (GBR) | 11.363 | 11.118 | |
| Anna Meares (AUS) | | | |