Canada, Germany, Great Britain qualify full track cycling teams for Paris Olympics

Canadas team celebrate after winning the track cycling mens team pursuit final of the Pan American Games Santiago 2023
Canadas team celebrate after winning the track cycling mens team pursuit final of the Pan American Games Santiago 2023 (Image credit: Getty Images)

This article was corrected on April 22, 2024 - we mistakenly had South Africa instead of Colombia qualifying for the men's Omnium. Cyclingnews apologises for the incorrect information.

Canada, Germany and Great Britain qualified the maximum number of riders for the track cycling events in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris after the final Nations Cup event at the Milton Velodrome in Ontario, Canada, this weekend.

Nations qualified for the Olympic Games track cycling events through the 2022-2024 UCI Track rankings, which tally points earned in the last two Continental and World Championships and the best two results in the UCI Track Nations Cups in the 2023 and 2024 seasons. 

Great Britain finished seventh in the men's team pursuit rankings and fifth in the men's team sprint, second in women's team pursuit and team sprint to qualify the maximum team size of 14.

Germany landed in ninth and seventh in men's and sixth and first in women's team pursuit and sprint, respectively.

Canada ended the team pursuit 2022-2024 rankings in eighth place to secure maximum team size for the men's endurance races, narrowly edging Poland out of the top eight and eighth in the team pursuit rankings. The women edged out France for the eighth team sprint position and landed fifth in the team pursuit.

There are six medal events in track cycling for men and women with a maximum of seven male and seven female athletes - four each in the three endurance events (Team Pursuit, Omnium and Madison) and three for the three sprint events (Team Sprint, Sprint and Keirin).

Countries can also pull in one male and one female athlete from other cycling disciplines. Michael Mørkøv has already been named to Denmark's team to play dual roles in the road race to support Mads Pedersen and to compete in the Madison.

Qualification for the track cycling events hinges on the team events, with the top 10 countries in the team pursuit and the top 8 in the team sprint UCI Olympic rankings automatically making the cut.

Nations that qualified in the Team Sprint can enter two athletes into the Sprint and Keirin using athletes already qualified in another track event or cycling discipline. Nations that made the Team Pursuit cut can also field a Madison team and one spot for the Omnium under the same conditions.

On the men's side, Australia, Japan, Great Britain, Germany and Canada earned both Team Pursuit and Team Sprint quotas, while women's teams from Germany, Great Britain, New Zealand and Canada earned entry to both.

Other countries earned Olympic quotas by placing in the top 7 of the UCI Olympic event rankings while not qualifying for team events.

The United States qualified only one spot for men in the Omnium, while the US women earned spots for all of the endurance events. Jennifer Valente, winner of the Omnium gold medal in the Tokyo Olympics, ended the season as the number 1 ranked rider in the event.

The country did not qualify for a spot for the women's individual sprint because of the special provisions to ensure all continents are represented. Egypt will be awarded the position as the highest-ranked country in Africa.

In the same provision, Egypt was awarded entry to the women's Omnium over Switzerland and the men's Omnium over Kazakhstan.

Paris Olympics men's track sprint event quotas

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Header Cell - Column 0 Team SprintSprintKeirin
Australia3(2)(2)
Netherlands3(2)(2)
Japan3(2)(2)
France3(2)(2)
Great Britain3(2)(2)
China3(2)(2)
Germany3(2)(2)
Canada3(2)(2)
Trinidad and TobagoRow 8 - Cell 1 1 (+1)1 (+1)
PolandRow 9 - Cell 1 1(1)
IsraelRow 10 - Cell 1 1 (+1)1 (+1)
SurinameRow 11 - Cell 1 1 (+1)1 (+1)
MalaysiaRow 12 - Cell 1 1 (+1)1 (+1)
LithuaniaRow 13 - Cell 1 1(1)
South Africa*Row 14 - Cell 1 1(1)
New ZealandRow 15 - Cell 1 (1)1
ThailandRow 16 - Cell 1 (1)1

Paris Olympics men's track endurance event quotas

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Header Cell - Column 0 Team PursuitOmniumMadison
Australia4(1)(2)
Belgium4(1)(2)
Canada4(1)(2)
Denmark4(1)(2)
France4(1)(2)
Germany4(1)(2)
Great Britain4(1)(2)
Italy4(1)(2)
Japan4(1)(2)
New Zealand4(1)(2)
AustriaRow 10 - Cell 1 (1)2
Czech RepublicRow 11 - Cell 1 12
NetherlandsRow 12 - Cell 1 12
PortugalRow 13 - Cell 1 12
SpainRow 14 - Cell 1 (1)2
ColombiaRow 15 - Cell 1 1Row 15 - Cell 3
Egypt*Row 16 - Cell 1 1Row 16 - Cell 3
IndonesiaRow 17 - Cell 1 1Row 17 - Cell 3
MexicoRow 18 - Cell 1 1Row 18 - Cell 3
PolandRow 19 - Cell 1 1Row 19 - Cell 3
SwitzerlandRow 20 - Cell 1 1Row 20 - Cell 3
United StatesRow 21 - Cell 1 1Row 21 - Cell 3

Paris Olympics women's track sprint event quotas

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Header Cell - Column 0 Team SprintSprintKeirin
Canada3(2)(2)
China3(2)(2)
Germany3(2)(2)
Great Britain3(2)(2)
Mexico3(2)(2)
Netherlands3(2)(2)
New Zealand3(2)(2)
Poland3(2)(2)
AustraliaRow 8 - Cell 1 1 (+1)1
BelgiumRow 9 - Cell 1 1 (+1)1 (+1)
ColombiaRow 10 - Cell 1 1 (+1)1 (+1)
FranceRow 11 - Cell 1 1 (+1)1 (+1)
ItalyRow 12 - Cell 1 1 (+1)1 (+1)
JapanRow 13 - Cell 1 1 (+1)1 (+1)
Egypt (not USA)Row 14 - Cell 1 1(1)
MalaysiaRow 15 - Cell 1 (1)1

Paris Olympics women's track endurance event quotas

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Header Cell - Column 0 Team PursuitOmniumMadison
Australia4(1)(2)
Canada4(1)(2)
France4(1)(2)
Germany4(1)(2)
Great Britain4(1)(2)
Ireland4(1)(2)
Italy4(1)(2)
Japan4(1)(2)
New Zealand4(1)(2)
United States4(1)(2)
BelgiumRow 10 - Cell 1 (1)2
DenmarkRow 11 - Cell 1 (1)2
NetherlandsRow 12 - Cell 1 (1)2
PolandRow 13 - Cell 1 (1)2
SwitzerlandRow 14 - Cell 1 (1)2
ChinaRow 15 - Cell 1 1Row 15 - Cell 3
Hong KongRow 16 - Cell 1 1Row 16 - Cell 3
LithuaniaRow 17 - Cell 1 1Row 17 - Cell 3
MexicoRow 18 - Cell 1 1Row 18 - Cell 3
NorwayRow 19 - Cell 1 1Row 19 - Cell 3
PortugalRow 20 - Cell 1 1Row 20 - Cell 3
EgyptRow 21 - Cell 1 1Row 21 - Cell 3
Laura Weislo
Managing Editor

Laura Weislo has been with Cyclingnews since 2006 after making a switch from a career in science. As Managing Editor, she coordinates coverage for North American events and global news. As former elite-level road racer who dabbled in cyclo-cross and track, Laura has a passion for all three disciplines. When not working she likes to go camping and explore lesser traveled roads, paths and gravel tracks. Laura specialises in covering doping, anti-doping, UCI governance and performing data analysis.