UCI Announces Athlete Quotas for Olympics

May 27, 2016 at 6:16
by Pinkbike Staff  
The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) today announced the list of the 38 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) qualified for the mountain bike events (cross-country) at the upcoming Olympic Games, as well as the quota of athletes allocated to each of them.

According to the Olympic qualification system calendar for mountain bike, the NOCs have until June 15 to confirm the number of athletes entered. The UCI will reallocate all unused quota places by June 30.




The Olympic qualification systems for cycling’s four Olympic disciplines have been published on the UCI website, along with the UCI Olympic Qualification Rankings.

The mountain bike competitions will be held on August 20-21 at the Mountain Bike Centre in the Deodoro Olympic Park.

www.uci.ch

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48 Comments
  • 58 1
 No athletes for Britain again.... British cycling is an absolute disgrace when it comes to investing into mountain biking.
  • 27 1
 Pretty surprised to see this as GB is so dominant in the DH. Then again the Swiss don't have much of a showing in the DH but are so strong in the XC.
  • 67 0
 british cycling is really going downhill...
  • 10 19
flag clarky78 (May 27, 2016 at 11:46) (Below Threshold)
 Because XC is so dull and people in the UK want to go downhill! And they are very good at it. So why not.
  • 7 0
 @deadbeat: We are pretty dominant on the track and show pretty well in the BMX as well. I just find it hard to believe that British Cycling haven't managed to bring enough people through on the XC front over the last 4 years, especially as we hosted the games in 2012, to be in the top 23 countries.
  • 9 0
 @charlielynes: trouble is as soon as they spot any talent they push them towards road or track cycling. Not enough dollar in MTB.
  • 2 0
 If you read Maxine Filby's article www.ukxcnews.com/racer-blog-are-uk-xco-courses-lacking-bite-maxine-filby you'll understand one of the reasons why. I do the odd XC race and they are rarely challenging. It's a shame when we have so many potentially good riders who are scared away by the bordem of XC in UK
  • 2 0
 @ComradeLorry: A very insightful read. Its a shame that organisers feel they have to do this for fear of legal action. If it is the BC commissars, surly that would go against their remit of "Improving British Cycling"
As for Maxine, she seems to be the sort of rider we should be supporting.
  • 2 0
 @kes2903: Good point. I've heard the same said of track and field in the USA. All the best athletes get pushed into the money sports at high school or before, so the fastest sprinters never make it to the olympics. Imagine what could be achievable... 9.4s hunderd, anyone?
  • 2 0
 @ddfc

Spot on comment - could not believe after scanning those lists we are not sending a single athlete to race Mountain Bikes at the Olympics!

British Cycling is obviously having problems (especially after the departure of Shane Sutton after the alleged comments about women and disabled athletes)
  • 1 0
 @hampsteadbandit: What a shane! Stabbed in the back for telling it straight. Winners have to be able to take straight talk.
  • 1 0
 yes it is disgrace no riders british cycling has got its ass in a wall and it is like talking to a wall
  • 1 0
 @ComradeLorry: if you look at the other nations that have qualified in the women, you'd see that many points come from stage races not just xc. They have all round riders who are adept both technically and have the endurance ability. Both aspects need to be developed so I think it is wrong to focus too much only on technical aspects. We will get very few UCI points focusing on supporting riders to complete a World Cup race. Sally Bigham is one of our top points scorers for a reason. Many of the top women xc riders in other countries are equally competitive in marathon events and stage races. That does not seem to be the case for British riders.
  • 26 1
 I don't understand what this means
  • 9 0
 It is the number of starting spots a country gets for the XC race at the Olympics for men and women.
  • 9 0
 "0A%&S O1 #-& 222I O$/%.IA3+ RIO ,)!"
Surely written by Ratboy.
  • 15 1
 Considering all weird business crap that goes on behind the scenes, the economic impact to the cities who host it, & just the fact that pretty much any sport in the Olympics now has it's own championship that's probably more representative of the best of that sport, I kinda feel like the Olympics is no longer that relevant.

It made sense during a lot of the 20th century, but at this point I feel like it's mostly going on momentum. If I were leading a country, I'd have no desire to try to host, ever.
  • 1 0
 it worked for Greece kappa
  • 6 3
 How about the sports that the Olympics were founded on like track & field and swimming. That's all the Olympics really should be.
  • 3 3
 @philipmcm: Swimming was not one of the original ancient greek Olympic sports
  • 5 0
 @ryansimonovich: but bare knuckle fighting (in the nude) was I believe, he means the modern olympics
  • 12 6
 there needs to be a new british cycling as in it's current state they only seem to focus on road cycling and paying ex-pros to get adults to commute to work and to get kids on bikes.
  • 22 5
 In reality, both of those are more important than bike racing.
  • 11 2
 @aaronfpeet: Bike racing is the crucible that not only drives all development but also influences people in their decisions to participate. There's a whole bunch of people in the UK that think the only cycling they can do is on pavement, and that's pretty sad.
  • 4 6
 @AGR97: That is nonsense.

Racing has absolutely zero to do with people getting involved in cycling. In fact I would say it does more harm than good in getting people into bikes. Formula One has no impact on someone driving a VW around town.

What a racer needs and what people need for a bike are two distinctly different things. Getting someone on a Hybrid sells more mountain bikes and or road bikes than any captain spandex ever has.

Lance Armstrong's Cancer foundation sold more bikes than his participation in bike racing ever did.
  • 1 2
 @AGR97: any numbers showing that 4 years later? Anyone stick with it? That looks like a January 1st gym subscription graph.

Judging the zero spots in this years Olympics doesn't look likely.
  • 2 0
 @bonfire: My point isn't about the actual effect, rather the idea that there is one.
  • 5 0
 Why have British Cycling not got a program in place to send athletes to Rio? If they have, how has it failed in the 4 years since London 2012? Olympic legacy... Hmmmm Frown
  • 2 0
 They focus on track cycling and road cycling. For MTB seems like the top athletes rather ride downhill (for our pleasure here at pinkibike ! Smile )
  • 2 0
 @Rideuse67: at London Britain had only a couple of riders, this time it seems that they aren't even helped out by British cycling, Annie last is on a Euro team I think
  • 7 5
 Olympic cycling is starting to smell like the tour de france from 10 years ago. It seems as if the underworld of crooked investors just hasn't been brought to light yet. It seems whatever countries want to participate should, and the countries should all be allowed the same minimum number of entrants. Not the UCI just basing it on points and politics...cycling now feels like gymnastics from the 90s.
  • 2 0
 While I don't disagree with most of your points, the format that xco is in means that rankings to limit the number of participants are needed. If the Olympic format was xce instead then maybe you could have far more racers, but the format of XCO is very restrictive in this regard.
  • 2 0
 @j-t-g: lots more starters at world cups and world championships, so field size isn't an issue. Watch slalom skiing at the winter olympics and see a hundred unqualified Euro expats representing some tropical countries who can't even ski the course without missing gates. Pathetic.

Wonder who Slovakia will pick for their one spot. Peter Sagan, or the guy who busted his ass for a top 40 world ranking?
  • 2 0
 Imho, the Olympic starting grid should look more like world Champs than world cup
  • 2 0
 With the political climate, the zika virus, and the rampant pollution you have to wonder how these Olympics are going to go? Then again the horrible air pollution in China didn't stop them from having the Olympics.
  • 3 0
 I disagree with there being fewer spots for women. Watch any World Cup XC race to see why.
  • 2 0
 Did they publish bmx racing quotas too?
  • 1 0
 Gracias a Catriel Soto mi país tiene representante en el MTB. Un genio!
  • 1 0
 Go Canada!
  • 5 8
 Why does the UCI even get to decide this?
  • 9 0
 They are the recognized world governing body for cycling in this discipline
  • 4 0
 @Arnoodles: because it is the UCI?
  • 3 0
 I realize... Just seems to me that the Olympics should be kept separate from the UCI.
  • 3 1
 @Arnoodles: The IOC has handed regulation and governing of all things cycling in the olympics over to the UCI. Which is a shame because I think DH or super D would make great olympic sports. Sadly, that'll never happen with the UCI no-fun brigade in charge.
  • 1 0
 @Arnoodles: It's the way it works. The IOC has the world governing bodies run each sport at the games essentially. Swimming is FINA, Triathlon UTI....etc. IOC is just an administration organization for the most part. They don't actively put on anything.
  • 1 0
 @zutroy: Teehee best typo ever! The International Triathlon Union is very very similar to a Urinary Tract Infection! :-)
  • 1 0
 @riderideandridesomemore: who says it was a typo Wink







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