The flying 200
Every sprint-qualifying ride at the Track Worlds and Olympics since 2001 and at every World Cup, Nations Cup and European Championships since 2016: 200 m times for 4,300 rides, with the 100 m split where the timing sheets print it (2007 on). How fast it has become, where the speed comes from, and how much of it is the track.
How fast it has become
Fastest, 8th-fastest and 24th-fastest qualifier each year across the selected competitions. The 24th is the qualifying cut at a Worlds (18th before 2008).
Where the speed comes from
First 100 m against second 100 m for every ride. Diagonal lines are equal 200 m times. Points on the dashed line split their 200 evenly; almost everyone sits above it. The solid line is the least-squares fit with its R², slowing by 1.5–2.5 % in the second half.
How much is the track
Venue effect on 200 m time, estimated from riders who raced at several venues (rider and season held constant). Negative is faster. Zero is a typical track.
Altitude (Konya 1,200 m) and new fast boards (Izu, Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines — which is also the Paris 2024 Olympic track) show up as expected. Olympic tracks are marked with a gold ring and are always listed, even with fewer rides. Tick "Venue-adjusted times" above to see every chart on a typical-track basis;
How the venue effect is calculated
The idea. You cannot compare tracks by their best times — the fastest riders turn up at the biggest meets. Instead the model uses riders who raced at several venues and asks: for the same rider, in the same season, how much did the time change from one track to another? Averaged over hundreds of such riders, the common shift that every rider experiences at a venue is the venue effect.
The model. For every ride, log(time) = rider effect + season trend + venue effect + noise, fitted by least squares across all 2001–2026 qualifying rides. The rider effect absorbs how good that rider is; the season trend (with a gentle curve) absorbs equipment and era; what is left, shared by everyone at one venue, is the track. Effects are expressed as % of time against the median venue among those with 20+ rides, which is set to 0. Venues are only identified because riders repeat across them, so a venue that hosted a single meeting (Athens, Beijing, Izu) also absorbs anything else special about that meeting — the Olympic peak included — which is why the Olympic-effect panel below exists separately.
Reading it. −2.8 % at Konya means a rider who does 9.700 on a typical track would be expected to do about 9.43 there, all else equal. "Venue-adjusted times" divides every ride by (1 + effect) so tracks can be compared on a level basis. The adjustment is an average: a given rider on a given day will deviate from it.
The Olympic effect
Same rider, Olympic qualifying against the Worlds qualifying that preceded it (Melbourne → Athens 2004, Manchester → Beijing 2008, Melbourne → London 2012, London → Rio 2016, Berlin → Izu 2021, Glasgow 2023 → Paris 2024). Each line runs from the Worlds time to the Olympic time; green went faster. Tick "Venue-adjusted" to remove the track.
By nation
Mean change per rider for each Olympic cycle, nations with at least two rider-Games overall. Bar label shows the mean and the number of riders. Negative is faster at the Olympics.
Fastest riders
Each rider's best ride across the selected competitions, ranked on the venue-adjusted time — what the ride would have been worth on a typical track — so a 9.04 at altitude and a 9.21 at sea level can be compared. Untick to rank on the raw clock instead. Both times are always shown; the ▲▼ column is how many places the adjustment moves the rider.
| # | Rider | Nat | Where | 100 m | 200 m | Adj. | Track | ▲▼ | 2nd/1st |
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Careers
Best time per season for any riders you choose — anyone in the database with at least two seasons, men or women. Choose "Any competition" for the career best each season wherever it was set (Worlds, Olympics, Nations Cups, World Cups, Euros), or "Selected competitions" to stick to the events ticked at the top — e.g. Worlds and Olympics only. Hover a point to see where it was set. Thin dashed line is the field's 8th-fastest in the selected competitions. Switch the x-axis to career year to compare trajectories regardless of when they started, or the y-axis to qualifying position to compare where they stood in the field (best position that season in the chosen scope).