UCI announces Olympic mountain bike spots qualified by nation

The UCI announced the number of mountain bike spots qualified for each nation for the 2012 London Olympic Games on Wednesday.  The spots are based on three criteria specified by the UCI including nations ranking and performance within the individual continental regions.

The UCI Olympic qualification ranking was determined by summing the points of the UCI rankings by nation Olympic format as of May 23, 2011 and May 23, 2012.In case of equal points, the nations were ranked by their best place in the UCI rankings by nation.

For the men's race, the top 24 ranked nations qualified one, two or three riders depending on their specific ranking. In addition, seven other nations also qualified one rider each based on individual rankings as of the 2011 Continental Championships for Asia, America, Africa and Oceania. Finally, Guam qualified one rider under a special provision which states that if an NOC obtains a qualifying place under criterion no. 2, but has already qualified under criterion no. 1, the next best ranked NOC in the respective continental championships ranking will qualify.

For the women's race, the top 18 ranked nations qualified one or two riders depending on their specific ranking. In addition, four other nations also qualified one rider each based on individual rankings as of the 2011 Continental Championships for Asia, America, Africa and Oceania.

In total, 50 men and 30 women are allocated spots by nation for the Olympic Games. A complete listing of the number of mountain bike racers qualified per nation is below.

Although there was some minor shuffling in the rankings after this past weekend's World Cup in La Bresse, France, there were no changes in the number of racers each nation qualified relative to what Cyclingnews posted last week thank the calculations of Rob Jones.

What happens next is that nations will decide whether to accept all qualified spots and then name their riders to the teams.  Any unclaimed spots will be re-allocated by the UCI.

The Olympic mountain bike races will happen at Hadleigh Farm in Essex on Saturday, August 11 and Sunday, August 12.

Olympic Mountain Bike race qualifying by nations

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Men Olympic qualifying by nations
#CountrySpots
1Switzerland3
2France3
3Czech Republic3
4Spain3
5Germany3
6Italy2
7Netherlands2
8South Africa2
9United States of America2
10Austria2
11Canada2
12Poland2
13Belgium2
14Great Britain1
15Sweden1
16Australia1
17Japan1
18Brazil1
19Ukraine1
20Hungary1
21Russian Federation1
22Argentina1
23Greece1
24Cyprus1
25Namibia (Africa)1
26Rwanda (Africa)1
27Colombia (America)1
28Costa Rica (America)1
29Hong Kong, China (Asia)1
30People's Republic of China (Asia)1
31New Zealand (Oceania)1
32Guam1
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Women Olympic qualifying by nations
#CountrySpots
1Canada2
2Switzerland2
3France2
4Poland2
5United States of America2
6Slovenia2
7Germany2
8Norway2
9Russian Federation1
10Czech Republic1
11Italy1
12Austria1
13Netherlands1
14New Zealand1
15Ukraine1
16Great Britain1
17Sweden1
18Denmark1
19South Africa (Africa)1
20Colombia (America)1
21People's Republic of China (Asia)1
22Australia (Oceania)1

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Sue George is an editor at Cyclingnews.  She coordinates all of the site's mountain bike race coverage and assists with the road, 'cross and track coverage.