Cycling at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's sprint
| Men's Sprint at the Games of the XXIX Olympiad
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| Venue | Laoshan Velodrome | ||||||||||||
| Dates | August 17 (preliminaries—2nd round) August 18 (quarterfinals—final) |
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| Competitors | 21 from 15 nations | ||||||||||||
| Winning time | 10.228/10.216 | ||||||||||||
| Medalists | |||||||||||||
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Chris Hoy |
 Great Britain
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Jason Kenny |
Great Britain
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Mickaël Bourgain |
 France
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The men'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 18 cyclists in that qualifying round were seeded into the 1/16 finals. There, they raced one-on-one. The nine winners advanced to the 1/8 finals, while the nine losers were sent to the first repechage. In the repechage, the cyclists were placed in heats of three cyclists apiece; winners moved back into the main competition by advancing into the 1/8 finals.
The twelve cyclists in the 1/8 finals again competed one-on-one. The six winners advanced to the quarterfinals, with the six losers getting another chance at the second repechage. This repechage also 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.
200 metre time trial, with the top 18 riders advancing.
The eighteen qualifying cyclists from the preliminary round were paired, 1 vs. 18, 2 vs. 17, and so on, in head-to-head 200 metre matches, with the winners advancing to the second round and the losers to the first round repechage.
The nine losers from the first round were put into three three-man 200 metre matches, with the winner of each advancing to the next round.
The twelve cyclists who qualified this far were paired off again in head-to-head sprint matches,
The six cyclists who lost in the second round were matched into two three-man 200 metre races, with the winner of each advancing to the next round.
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.
The four cyclists qualified this far were paired again for a best two-out-of-three series of 200 metre races.
During the same session as the semifinals, the four cyclists who were eliminated in the second round repechage were put into a single four-man 200 metre race to determine exact placings from ninth to twelfth.
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.
In the same session as the finals, the four cyclists who lost in the quarterfinals were put into one four-man 200 metre race to determine exact placings from fifth to eighth.
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Wikipedia