Cycling at the 1992 Summer Olympics – Men's sprint

This was the 20th appearance of the event, which has been held at every Summer Olympics except 1904 and 1912. Four of the quarterfinalists from 1988 returned: silver medalist Nikolai Kovsh of the Soviet Union (now representing the Unified Team), bronze medalist Gary Neiwand of Australia, sixth-place finisher Erik Schoefs of Belgium, and eighth-place finisher Maxwell Cheeseman of Trinidad and Tobago. East Germany had been dominant through reunification of Germany; Bill Huck and Jens Fiedler had won the last three world championships, and the last time anyone not from East Germany had won was 1982. With only one cyclist per nation allowed, Fiedler was selected for the German team and was the heavy favorite.^[2]

Indonesia made its debut in the men's sprint; some former Soviet republics competed as the Unified Team. France made its 20th appearance, the only nation to have competed at every appearance of the event.

This sprint competition involved a series of head-to-head matches along with the new qualifying round of time trials. There were five main match rounds, with two repechages. The first repechage had two rounds.^[2][3]

• Qualifying round: Each of the 23 competitors completed a 200-metre flying time trial (reaching full speed before timing started for the last 200 metres). The top 24 advanced to the match rounds, seeded based on their time in the qualifying round. With only 23 riders starting, nobody was eliminated.
• Round 1: The 23 cyclists were seeded into 8 heats of 3 cyclists each, except that one heat had only 2 cyclists and a second was reduced to 2 by a withdrawal. The winner of each heat advanced to the 1/8 finals (8 cyclists) while the other cyclists went to the first repechage semifinals (14 cyclists).
• First repechage semifinals: The 14 cyclists were divided into 7 heats, each with 2 cyclists. The winner of each heat advanced to the first repechage finals (7 cyclists) while the losers were eliminated (7 cyclists).
• First repechage finals: The 7 cyclists were divided into 3 heats, two with 2 cyclists and one with 3 cyclists. The winners of each heat advanced to the 1/8 finals, along with the second-placed cyclist in the heat of 3 (4 cyclists). The last-place cyclist in each heat was eliminated (3 cyclists).
• 1/8 finals: The 12 remaining cyclists competed in a 1/8 finals round. There were 4 heats in this round, with 3 cyclists in each. The top cyclist in each heat advanced to the quarterfinals (4 cyclists), while the remaining two in each heat went to the second repechage (8 cyclists).
• Second repechage: This round featured 4 heats, with 2 cyclists each. The winner of each heat advanced to the quarterfinals (4 cyclists); the losers were eliminated (4 cyclists).
• Quarterfinals: Beginning with the quarterfinals, all matches were one-on-one competitions and were held in best-of-three format. There were 4 quarterfinals, with the winner of each advancing to the semifinals and the loser going to the fifth-eighth classification race.
• Semifinals: The two semifinals provided for advancement to the gold medal final for winners and to the bronze medal final for losers.
• Finals: Both a gold medal final and a bronze medal final were held, as well as a classification final for fifth through eighth places for quarterfinal losers.

The records for the sprint are 200 metre flying time trial records, kept for the qualifying round in later Games as well as for the finish of races.

More information World record, Olympic record ...

World record	Vladimir Adamachvili (URS)	10.099	Moscow, Soviet Union	6 August 1990
Olympic record	Lutz Heßlich (GDR)	10.395	Seoul, South Korea	21 September 1988

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Three men broke the Olympic record in the qualifying round, in sequence: Curt Harnett clocked in at 10.368 seconds, Gary Neiwand at 10.330 seconds, and Jens Fiedler at 10.252 seconds.

All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+2)