Sprint, Women

This was the first track cycling event for women at the Olympics. Women had contested the match sprint at the World Championships since 1958, and a number of outstanding women cyclists never had the opportunity to compete at the Olympics. Notable among these were Galina Yermolayeva (URS), six-time World Champion, who won 14 medals in the event between 1958-73; American Sheila Young, Olympic speed skating champion who was World Champion in 1973, 1976, and 1981; and Soviet Galina Tsareva, World Champion from 1977-79.

Coming into Seoul, the three dominant female sprinters of the 80s had been American Connie Paraskevin-Young, sister-in-law of Sheila Young and World Champion in 1982-84, and again in 1990; Soviet/Estonian sprinter Erika Salumäe, World Champion in 1987 and again in 1989; and Christa Luding-Rothenburger, East German World Champion in 1986 and runner-up to Salumae in 1987. Both Paraskevin-Young and Luding-Rothenburger had competed at the Olympics in speed skating – Paraskevin-Young in 1984, while Luding-Rothenburger had competed in speed skating in both 1984 and 1988, and won a gold medal in the 1,000 metres in 1988. In the end, the three favorites would win the medals. In the first semi, Salumäe defeated Paraskevin-Young in two straight races. Luding-Rothenburger had more trouble in her semi, needing three races to get past France’s Isabelle Gautheron. With that victory, Luding-Rothenburger made Olympic history, guaranteeing she would become the first woman to win medals in both the Winter and Summer Olympics. The final went to Salumäe in three races, after Luding-Rothenburger had won the first race. Salumäe would return in 1992 to defend her title, then representing Estonia, a historic victory for her renascent nation.