After successful qualification campaigns, four track athletes and three BMX Racing athletes based at the UCI World Cycling Centre (WCC) in Aigle, Switzerland, have earned their tickets for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The seven qualified riders come from six different countries. Most have been training at the UCI WCC for several years under the guidance of the centre’s experienced coaches, themselves former Olympians.
Track: four sprint specialists on the Olympic stage
The track athletes’ Olympic qualification campaign drew to a close with the final round of the Tissot UCI Track Nations’ Cup last month, where they took six top-ten results including two podiums. In three months’ time, five of them will line up in the sprint events (sprint and keirin) at the Paris Olympic Games, where the track competitions will take place at the Vélodrome National de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines.
Nicholas Paul (Trinidad & Tobago) has been training at the UCI WCC since 2020 and already competed in the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, in 2021. Heis theworld record holder in the 200m flying start and two-time UCI World Championships silver medallist (1km time trial in 2021 and sprint in 2023). Most recently, he was crowned double Pan American Champion at the beginning of April (sprint and keirin) and took bronze in the sprint at the Milton round of the Tissot UCI Track Nations Cup in Canada.
Jaïr Tjon En Fa (Suriname) first arrived at the UCI WCC in 2018, training for the Tokyo Olympic Games, where he just missed out on a medal (4th in the keirin). At the final round of the Tissot UCI Track Nations Cup last month he reached the final of the sprint against UCI World Champion Harrie Lavreysen (NED), finally finishing second.
Jai Angsuthasawit (Thailand) 2018 Asian Games Gold medalist is already the pride of his country, becoming the first Thai track athlete to qualify for the Olympics in 50 years. He will also line up in the sprint events at Paris with (and against) his sparring partners and good friends Jaïr and Nicholas.
Vasilijus Lendel (Lithuania) joined the UCI WCC track group in 2023. The multiple National Champion and 2020 bronze medallist (sprint) at the UEC European Championships will compete in the Olympics for the first time after a solid qualification campaign that most recently saw him take 5th and 7th place in the Sprint at the Hong Kong (China) and Milton rounds of the Tissot UCI Track Nations Cups.
These four athletes will be joined in Aigle by Kwesi Browne (Trinidad & Tobago), a former UCI WCC athlete, who returns to the centre for the final three months of his Olympic preparation.
Great Britain’s Craig MacLean – former Olympic silver medallist (team sprint at Sydney 2000) and UCI World Champion (team sprint in 2002) – is in charge of the UCI WCC track group, currently on a training camp in Hyères, France.
BMX Racing: Zoé and Sae return, a first for Komet
As the Olympic qualification period for BMX Racing draws to a close, three of the UCI WCC athletes are assured of their place at this summer’s Olympics. The BMX Racing competitions will also take place in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, just minutes away from the velodrome.
The BMX Racing athletes’ preparation has been overseen by UCI WCC coach Twan Van Gendt (NED), himself a three-time Olympian (London 2012, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020) and former UCI World Champion (2019).
Zoé Claessens (Switzerland) has just won silver at the UCI BMX Racing World Championships - for the second time after 2022 -, andis reigning and two-time UEC European Champion. This season, she also won two back-to-back rounds of the 2024 UCI BMX Racing World Cup in Brisbane, Australia. She returns to the Olympic stage after Tokyo, where a crash in the semi-finals put an end to any medal hopes.
Sae Hatakeyama (Japan) will also be returning to the Olympics for a second time, after Tokyo 2020. Last year she finished 10th at the UCI BMX Racing World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland (Great Britain) and achieved several top-10 results in the UCI BMX Racing World Cup.
Although he will do his final Olympic preparation at home in Thailand, Komet Sukprasert has been a regular at the UCI WCC since 2017. After spending three months at the centre seven years ago, he returned to Aigle as a full time trainee in 2018 and 2019, then again after the Covid-19 pandemic, from 2022.
UCI World Cycling Centre Director Jacques Landry says that the athletes’ qualification for the Olympic Games confirms the effectiveness of the centre’s development programme: “The UCI WCC creates opportunities that some athletes may not have had in their own countries. For example, Thailand will be represented by two cyclists at the Olympic Games in Paris, which is a record for the country.
“We have an incredible coaching staff in Aigle. They have experience at the highest level of international competition and understand exactly what is needed to unlock the potential of their athletes. We thank the different National Federations that have trusted us to develop their athletes.
“In Paris, they will swap their UCI World Cycling Centre kit for their national colours, and we look forward to watching them live their Olympic dream.”