Cycling at the 1896 Summer Olympics – Men's sprint

The men's sprint was one of the five track cycling events on the Cycling at the 1896 Summer Olympics programme. It was held on 11 April as the second event on the schedule. It was held over the distance of 2 kilometres, or six laps of the track. The event was won by Paul Masson of France, with his teammate Léon Flameng earning bronze. Stamatios Nikolopoulos of Greece took silver

Background
This was the first appearance of the event, which has been held at every Summer Olympics except 1904 and 1912.

Competition format
The event featured a single race, with all four competitors starting together. The distance was 2 kilometres, or six laps around the $1/3$ kilometre track.

Schedule
The exact time of the event is not known; the cycling events began shortly after 2 p.m. and the sprint was the first event.

Results
The race was very slow and tactical, with no pacemakers: Rosemeyer was forced to retire after having mechanical problems.

Masson broke away late to beat Nikolopoulos by 15 meters, and Flameng finished well back in third.