How to watch Olympics Cycling Sprint live streams at Paris 2024

The Sprint, a thrilling game of cat and mouse, is one of the top draws of the Track Cycling programme at the Paris Olympic Games. Starting out on August 7 and wrapping up on August 11, here’s how to watch an Olympics 2024 Sprint live stream.

Also known as the Individual Sprint, the format sees two riders square up face-to-face in a contest that can bring them almost to a halt before they wind up to their blistering speeds, with the riders regularly eyeing each other up as they wait for the right moment to pounce and open the sprint. The first phase of the event sees the riders ranked on a flying lap time trial, which decides their seedings as they then work through the knockout head-to-head rounds all the way to the gold medal final. 

The Individual Sprint action got underway on August 7 when Lavreysen broke the world record in qualifying, and proceeded to win the gold medal on August 9, beating Australia's Matthew Richardson in the final. 

The women's kicked off on August 9, while August 10 saw the field whittled down to four after the quarterfinals: Ellesse Andrews (New Zealand), Emma Finucane (Great Britain), Leah Friedrich (Germany), and Hetty van de Wouw (Netherlands). 

The action comes to a head on August 11. The semifinals start at 11:22 local time (CET), with the finals starting at 12:45 for the first heats, and the second heats coming at 13:15. If deciders are needed, they'll be at 13:44. 

This guide explains how to watch Olympics Cycling Sprint 2024 wherever you are in the world, including details of how to use a VPN if you're away from home. For more from the track, find out how to watch Track Cycling at the Paris Olympics.

Watch Olympic Cycling Sprint live streams in the USA

NBC holds the broadcasting rights for the Olympic Games in the USA. The Olympics will be shown across several of the the broadcaster's television channels, and also on the network's streaming service, Peacock. 

The men's and women's Sprint events will be available on Peacock, which offers a seven-day free trial for those who want to try before they buy. A full subscription to the service via Peacock Premium starts from $7.99 per month. The ad-free Peacock Premium Plus costs $13.99 per month.

The finals for each event will also be shown live on television, with the men's final on E! on August 9 and the women's final on NBC 4 New York on August 11. 

These channels are available via cable plans, but there's no need to worry if you don't have cable. Sling is a smart TV service that allows people in the US to watch cable channels on their TV, laptop or tablet without actually having to subscribe to an annual cable TV package. E! and NBC 4 New York are available on Sling with the Sling Blue package, which costs $40 per month ($20 for the first month), although the latter is reserved for New York residents.

Watch Olympic Cycling Sprint live streams in Canada

If you live in Canada, you can catch the Olympics across several broadcasters, including the free-to-air CBC, and subscription services TSN and Sportsnet.

It's not clear whether CBCwill show the Sprint rounds as part of its daily television output; that may depend on how the Canadians fare. The finals are set to be streamed online on CBC Gem. Access to the broadcaster's ad-free on-demand library costs $5.99 per month, though the ad-supported version is free of charge.

TSN and Sportsnet do not have dedicated streams for each sport, so it's not certain whether the Sprint events will make the cut as part of their programming. 

The TSN subscription service will set you back $19.99 per month or $199.90 per year. Meanwhile, a Sportsnet SN Now subscription costs $14.99 per month or $179.99 per year.

Watch Olympic Cycling Sprint live streams in the UK

In the UK, cycling fans will be able to watch the Olympics on the BBC for free, via BBC One, BBC Two and BBC iPlayer. 

The BBC only has rights to broadcast two streams at any one time, however, so while the track cycling will be heavily favoured by the national broadcaster, it's not guaranteed that every round of the Sprint will be shown. 

For that, you'll have to watch on Discovery+, home to the most comprehensive coverage in the UK – 3,800 hours of live action across 55 channels. 

Thanks to a special Olympics deal  you can subscribe to the "standard" Discovery+ package for a cut-price £3.99 per month – sign up before August 11 and you can take advantage of the lower price until the end of the year. The package includes year-round cycling streams as well as other live sports, including snooker, tennis, motorsports, and more.

Watch Olympic Cycling Sprint live streams for free in Australia

In Australia, cycling fans can watch the Olympics for free on Channel 9 and its 9Now streaming service – arguably the most comprehensive free Olympics coverage in the world.

As is the case in other territories, a good chunk of the action is expected to be included in live television broadcast, but for guaranteed coverage of all the Sprint racing, fans can head to 9Now on the smart device of their choosing.

Watch Olympic Cycling Sprint live streams from anywhere

If you are traveling abroad and try to access your usual live streaming services to watch the action, you may find your access to be geo-restricted.

In this case, a VPN service will come in handy, allowing your computer to pretend it's home and let you log into your streaming accounts to catch all of the racing action.

Our colleagues at TechRadar thoroughly tested several VPN services and NordVPN won the gold medal:

NordVPN - get the world's favorite VPN We've put all the major VPNs through their paces and we rate NordVPN as the best for streaming Netflix as our top pick, thanks to its speed, ease of use and strong security features. It's also compatible with just about any streaming device out there, including Amazon Fire TV Stick, Apple TV, Xbox and PlayStation, as well as Android and Apple mobiles.

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Olympic Cycling Sprint Schedule