Para cycling track

Para cycling track is divided into three types of event: time trial, individual pursuit and tandem or team sprint. Track cycling made its Paralympic debut at the Games in Atlanta in 1996, 12 years after the introduction of Paralympic road cycling.

Two types of cycles can be used on track at the Paralympic Games: standard bicycles and tandems. There’s a cycle for each different type of disability, adapted to suit the athlete’s needs.

Summary

Athletes compete in time trials individually or in teams at a velodrome with a 250m track, in distances of 500m or 1km from a standing start. Meanwhile, in the individual pursuit, riders cycle distances of 3km or 4km. 

Great Britain took home the most medals in the sport from the Tokyo Paralympic Games, followed by Australia and France.

Athletes use different bicycles according to their impairment classification. In solo events, riders use standard racing bicycles with minor modifications where needed for safety depending on their disability, with adjustments made to the location of the brakes, gear changes or chainset, for example. The sport is practised by athletes that have undergone amputations or have limited movement of upper or lower limbs. 

Tandems are used by athletes who are blind or vision impaired who compete with a sighted pilot. 

Eligible impairments

Vision impairments, amputated upper or lower limbs and equivalent, physical disabilities limiting movement of the upper or lower limbs (such as cerebral palsy or hemiplegia).

Classification

• Letter: C (= Cycle) / VI or B (= Visually Impaired or Blind)
• Number: 1 to 5. Athletes with an amputated limb or impairment that affects motor function, 1 being the greatest impairment and 5 the mildest. Tandem is always associated with the letter VI or Blind, for athletes with a vision impairment

Events scheduled for 2024

The para cycling track events will take place between the 29th of August and the 1st of September.

• C1-2-3, km (men’s)
• C4-5, km (men’s)
• C1-2-3 500m (women’s)
• C4-5 500m (women’s)
• C1-2-3 pursuit (women’s)
• C1 pursuit (men’s)
• C2 pursuit (men’s)
• C3 pursuit (men’s)
• C4 pursuit (women’s-men’s)
• C5 pursuit (women’s-men’s)
• B, km (women’s-men’s)
• B pursuit (women’s-men’s)
• H1-5 team relay (mixed)

Venue in 2024

The paralympic track cycling events at Paris 2024 will take place against a modern backdrop at the French Cycling Federation’s Vélodrome National in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, built in 2014.

International federation

The pictogram