Women's road events were introduced to the Olympic programme at the1984 Summer Olympics. Women's track events were added in1988, and both types of events have been featured since then.
The2012 Summer Olympics were the first at which men and women competed in the same number of events in all cycling disciplines, including track cycling, which previously had more men's and fewer women's events than the 2008 programme.[1] However, women have shorter distances for some events.
The top of the lists for most successful (by gold medals won) and most decorated (by all medals won) are dominated by recently active track cyclists fromGreat Britain, who rose to prominence from the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics, and then dominance from the Beijing 2008 Games, winning 22 gold medals in the velodrome between 2008 and 2020, as well as single golds in road racing, road time trial, BMX freestyle, BMX racing and mountain biking in that timeframe. This sharp rise was largely thanks to significant funding byUK Sport ofBritish Cycling. The most successful Olympic cyclists of each sex are husband-and-wife coupleJason andLaura Kenny, with Jason winning seven golds and two silver medals and Laura five golds and one silver medal. Jason also holds the record of most decorated cyclist, with nine medals, and is the only cyclist to have successfully defended Olympic gold medals in three different cycling events. Laura Kenny shares the title of most decorated female cyclist, with six medals, withDutch legendLeontien van Moorsel (four golds, one silver and one bronze) and Australia sprint starAnna Meares (two gold, one silver and three bronze medals). Laura Kenny holds the unique distinction of winning the inaugural gold medals in three different events - women's team pursuit and women's omnium (both 2012) and women's madison (2020).
Great Britain'sChris Hoy, the first Olympic cyclist to win six gold medals, holds the unique distinction of having won gold across four different track disciplines; theKilo, theteam sprint (twice),match sprint andkeirin (twice) disciplines. Three cyclists share the record for gold medals in the same event with three;Jason Kenny in team sprint, compatriotEd Clancy in team pursuit, and AmericanKristin Armstrong intime trial. All three achieved the feat between 2008 and 2016.