May 24/12 9:28 am - Final MTB Olympic Rankings Released

Posted by Editoress on 05/24/12
 

The UCI has released the final Nation Rankings for the Olympic qualifying period. There has been no change to the number of spots each qualified nation will receive from our previous report after the May 15th rankings (See Daily News - Canada Set for Two Olympic Spots Each for Men & Women in MTB). However, some nations have swapped positions in the standings, based on how they performed in the final World Cup last weekend, in La Bresse, France.

For example, the USA dropped one spot in the men's ranking, while South Africa moved up two. Both nations will still receive two spots. Similarly for the women, the Netherlands moved a spot ahead of New Zealand, but both still have qualified one spot. The full list of nation rankings for women and men is below, with the number of Olympic spots each receives.

Just a reminder that the final ranking is based on the combined total points for each nation over two periods - May 23, 2010 to May 22, 2011 AND May 23, 2011 to May 22, 2012.

Countries have also obtained spots through the 2011 Continental Championships - the winning nation in the women's Championship and the top two nations in the men's receive a spot. However, if the nation has already qualified through nation ranking, then the spot goes to the nation of the next rider at the Championship. It should also be noted that this qualification is for the non-European Continental Championships - Americas, Oceania, Asian and African. A list of which nations have qualified through this process is given here:

There is one interesting note - At the 2011 Oceania Championships, only Australia and New Zealand competed, with Australia qualifying through nation rankings, and New Zealand getting the first of the two Continental spots. There is no provision for an automatic nominee for the second spot if none is available through the Continental Championships, so we cannot determine exactly how this will be awarded; the spot could go to the next highest Oceania country in the nations ranking (there isn't one, that we can tell), or to the next highest country in the nations ranking that has not already received a spot (which appears to be Portugal).

In total, this adds up to 30 spots for women and 50 for men. The UCI will confirm to each nation the number of spots it receives by June 1st, and each nation has to confirm whether it intends to use those spots back to the UCI by June 15th. Unused spots will go to a Tripartite Commission, which will reallocate by June 29th.

*  Qualifed through Continental Championship

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