Keirin, Women

Women’s keirin was the second new track cycling event at the 2012 Olympics, the first having been the women’s team sprint. Many of the competitors, however, had World Championship titles in the discipline, which had been contested there since 2002. France’s Clara Sánchez won the event in the 2004 and 2005, was runner up in 2002 and 2006, and earned a bronze medal in 2011. Guo Shuang of China was victorious in 2009, came in second in 2007, and captured bronze in 2006. Home-town favorite Vicki Pendleton was champion in 2007 and finished second in 2008 and 2010. Lithuania’s Simona Krupeckaitė had won in 2010, and Willy Kanis of the Netherlands and Kristina Vogel of Germany had bronze medals from 2009 and 2012 respectively. The biggest star in the sport, however, was Australia’s Anna Meares, the reigning World Champion for the past two seasons, who also earned silver in 2003 and bronze in 2007. She was the favorite going into the event, although Pendleton was looking to redeem herself after being relegated in the previous day’s team sprint.

All of the most prominent competitors survived to the semi-finals, from which only Meares, Pendleton, Sanchez, and Guo, alongside Canadian Monique Sullivan and Lee Wai Sze of Hong Kong, made it to the final. In the final Meares made the first attack after the pace vehicle moved aside, shooting into first place, but was quickly overtaken by Pendleton, who from then on never relinquished the lead. Having redeemed herself from the team sprint, Pendleton fought back tears as she completed the race and won herself a well-deserved gold medal. Guo took the silver while, in a surprising turn of events, Lee captured the bronze, which was only Hong Kong’s third Olympic medal since its NOC was founded in 1950. Meares fell to fifth in the standings, a disappointing result for the reigning World Champion.