When women’s Olympic track cycling was expanded to the same number of events as men’s and Omnium was first introduced in 2012 in the Olympic Games, supplanting such time-honoured races as the individual pursuit and the kilometre time trial for a single, multi-event competition, it caused no end of controversy. But after four Olympic cycles and some more significant changes in format, the Omnium has now become a well-established and exciting component of both the Games and the World Championships.
In 2021, after leading a crash-marred series from start to finish, the USA’s Jennifer Valente claimed the nation’s first Olympic track gold since 2000 when Marty Nothstein won the individual sprint in the Sydney Games.
In the final track event in Japan three years ago – an honour the women’s Omnium will once again enjoy in France this August – Valente’s across-the-board domination allowed her both to overcome a crash in the points round and fend off the home-nation favourite, Yumi Kajihara. Both riders will be present again in the Paris Olympics.
Changed from a six-event format to four in 2016 and held over a single day, rather than two, for the first time in 2021, the Omnium now consists of a scratch race, a tempo race, an elimination race and a points race.
The scratch race is the most straightforward in terms of rules, with the order of finishing after 7.5 kilometres (30 laps) deciding the number of points awarded to each rider. The tempo race, on the other hand, allows competitors to gain points in intermediate sprints and by lapping the field. Then the elimination race sees the last rider across the line in a sprint held every two laps removed from the event.
As the last of the four Omnium events, the most complicated in terms of strategy and the event where most points are awarded, the points race is almost always the most decisive. Riders can capture points in an 80-lap race in sprints held every ten laps, as well as gaining and losing points for lapping the field – or being lapped. As a result, the outright winner is rarely decided before this final round of racing.
Women’s Omnium competitors
- Georgia Baker (Australia)
- Alexandra Manly (Australia)
- Katrijn de Clercq (Belgium)
- Lotte Kopecky (Belgium)
- Maggie Coles-Lyster (Canada)
- Amalie Dideriksen (Denmark)
- Norman Julie Leth (Denmark)
- Ebtissam Zayed Ahmed (Egypt)
- Clara Copponi (France)
- Valentine Fortin (France)
- Franziska Brausse (Germany)
- Laura Suessemilch (Germany)
- Elinor Barker (Great Britain)
- Neah Evans (Great Britain)
- Sze Wing Lee (Hong Kong, China)
- Lara Gillespie (Ireland)
- Mia Griffin (Ireland)
- Elisa Balsamo (Italy)
- Letizia Paternoster (Italy)
- Yumi Kajihara (Japan)
- Tsuyaka Uchino (Japan)
- Olivija Baleisyte (Lithuania)
- Victoria Velasco Fuentes (Mexico)
- Maike van der Duin (Netherlands)
- Ally Wollaston (New Zealand)
- Anita Yvonne Stenberg (Norway)
- Jiali Liu (China)
- Daria Pikulik (Poland)
- Maria Martins (Portugal)
- Aline Seitz (Switzerland)
- Jennifer Valente (United States)
Women’s Omnium contenders
Unlike in the equivalent men’s event, the Women’s Omnium has a clear favourite, Jennifer Valente, both defending Olympic Champion and the most recent World Champion in the speciality in 2022 and again in 2023.
But if Valente has recently ruled the roost in the Omnium, her closest pursuer in the Tokyo Games, Yumi Kajihara of Japan, is back to challenge her in Paris. Kajihara, too, is a former Omnium World Champion, clinching her rainbow jersey on French soil at the Velodrome Couvert Regional Jean-Stablinski in Roubaix in 2021.
There are plenty of other contenders beyond these two top names, though, even if Katie Archibald, the British standout favourite and another former double Omnium World Champion, will not be taking part as a result of injuries incurred in a domestic accident.
Belgian star allrounder Lotte Kopecky, on the other hand, has unfinished business with the Olympic Omnium after she abandoned due to a crash in 2021, while Italian duo Letizia Paternoster and Elisa Balsamo as well as Portugal’s Maria Martins and Poland’s Daria Pikulik, all former World’s Omnium podium finishers, are also names to watch.
The long list of favourites also has to include both Amalie Dideriksen (Denmark), who lost narrowly to Netherlands racer Kirsten Wild in the 2021 Games battle for bronze and fourth, and Anita Yvonne Stenberg (Norway), fifth in Tokyo and back again in Paris for more Omnium action.
Women’s Omnium schedule
- August 11: Scratch Race – 11:00 CET
- August 11: Tempo Race – 11:57 CET
- August 11: Elimination Race – 12:53 CET
- August 11: Points Race (Final) – 13:56 CET
