The men's

Keirin – literally "racing cycle" – is a form of motor-paced cycle racing in which track cyclists sprint for victory following a speed-controlled start behind a motorized or non-motorized pacer. It was developed in Japan around 1948 for gamblin ...

at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

took place on August 16 at the

Laoshan Velodrome The Laoshan Velodrome () is a velodrome that is located in Laoshan, Shijingshan District, Beijing, China. It was built for the 2008 Summer Olympics. The venue was tested during the UCI Track World Cup in December 2007. The velodrome hosted Cyclin ...

. This

track cycling Track cycling is a bicycle racing sport usually held on specially built banked tracks or velodromes using purpose-designed track bicycles. History Track cycling has been around since at least 1870. When track cycling was in its infancy, it wa ...

event consisted of multiple rounds. In each race, the four to seven cyclists in the heat covered 8 laps of the track. The first 5.5 laps were behind a motorized pacer called a

derny A Derny is a motorized bicycle for motor-paced cycling events such as during six-day and Keirin racing and motor-paced road races. Some riders train behind a derny on the road. The Derny is so-called as it was originally produced by the Frenc ...

, which gradually increased speed up to 50 kilometres per hour. The derny then left the track and the cyclists then raced the final 2.5 laps to the finish. In the first round, four heats were held. The top two cyclists in each heat advanced to the semifinals, with the rest of the cyclists competing again in the repechage. Four of those cyclists advanced from the repechage to the semifinals as well, for a total of 12 semifinalists. They raced again in two semifinals heats. The top three cyclists in each semifinal advanced to the final, while the bottom three competed in the 7th to 12th place classification race.

Qualification

Twenty-five cyclists competed in the Keirin.

Chris Hoy Sir Christopher Andrew Hoy MBE (born 23 March 1976) is a former track cyclist and Racing driver from Scotland who represented Great Britain at the Olympic and World Championships and Scotland at the Commonwealth Games. Hoy is eleven-times a wor ...

(Great Britain) qualified directly by winning the Keirin at the

2008 UCI Track Cycling World Championships The 2008 UCI Track Cycling World Championships were the World Championship for track cycling. They took place at the Manchester Velodrome in Manchester, United Kingdom from 26 to 30 March 2008. Eighteen events were scheduled; the women's team pur ...

. He also won the event at the late 2007

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

event in Sydney, affording another position to qualifiers based on

Union Cycliste Internationale The ''Union Cycliste Internationale'' (UCI; ; en, International Cycling Union) is the world governing body for sports cycling and oversees international competitive cycling events. The UCI is based in Aigle, Switzerland. The UCI issues racing ...

(UCI) rankings.

Results

REL=Relegated, DNF=Did not finish, DNS=Did not start

Preliminaries

Heat 1 Heat 2 Heat 3 Heat 4

Repechage

Heat 1 Heat 2 Heat 3 Heat 4

Semifinals

Heat 1 Heat 2

Finals

Classification race Medals race

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cycling at the 2008 Summer Olympics - Men's keirin Track cycling at the 2008 Summer Olympics Cycling at the Summer Olympics – Men's keirin Men's events at the 2008 Summer Olympics