Cycling at the 2020 Summer Olympics
The cycling competitions at Tokyo 2020 (held in 2021) featured 22 events across five disciplines: BMX Freestyle, BMX Racing, Road, Mountain Bike, and Track. The games ran from July 24 to August 8, 2021, at five venues: the Olympic BMX Course, the Izu Mountain Bike Course, the Izu Velodrome, Musashinonomori Park, and Fuji Speedway. There were 530 competitors from 73 nations.
COVID-19 caused the Olympics to be postponed from 2020 to 2021. Cycling has been part of every Summer Olympics since 1896, and the program has grown over time to include women’s events, mountain biking, and BMX, reaching 22 events in Tokyo. The 2020 edition added BMX freestyle for the first time and brought back Madison track racing, which had been removed in 2012. The extra events were partly funded by moving track cycling and mountain biking to Izu to save costs. Izu was able to host some spectators because it was not under the state of emergency.
Great Britain topped cycling medals, earning 12 in total (six golds), with the Netherlands also winning 12 medals (five golds). Switzerland did particularly well in mountain biking. Jason Kenny and Laura Kenny set new records as the most successful British Olympic cyclists in history, each earning multiple golds.
Track cycling was originally planned for Ariake but was moved to the Izu Velodrome to save about $100 million in construction costs. The International Cycling Union initially opposed moving track events far from Tokyo but accepted the plan to use Izu as a multi-sport cycling center.
In road cycling, the start was at Musashinonomori Park and the finish at Fuji Speedway. The men’s race was 234 kilometers long with about 4,865 meters of elevation, while the women’s race was 137 kilometers with about 2,692 meters of elevation. The routes included a long early climb on Doushi Road, a pass by Lake Yamanakako, and passes near Mount Fuji. The men faced an additional long climb toward the end, including the Mikuni Pass, before finishing at Fuji Speedway. The women’s course stayed on the Fuji Speedway circuit, riding about 1.5 laps before the final finish.
Nation quotas: Japan received guaranteed spots in BMX Racing, BMX Freestyle, and Mountain Bike, plus two spots per gender in Road (no guaranteed spots in road time trial or track). Qualification mainly came from UCI rankings, with some spots awarded through world championships or continental events.
Overall, Tokyo’s cycling program blended historic events with new additions, adjusted venues to control costs, and produced memorable performances across multiple nations.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 14:37 (CET).