Cycling at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Women's cross-country

The women's cross-country mountain biking event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place on 27 July 2021 at the Izu MTB Course, Izu, Shizuoka. 38 cyclists from 29 nations were expected to compete, but only 37 did. The race ended in all three medals won by Swiss athletes, the first medal sweep in Olympic cycling history.

Background
This was the 7th appearance of the event, which has been held at every Summer Olympics since mountain bike cycling was added to the programme in 1996.

The reigning Olympic champion was Jenny Rissveds of Sweden, and the reigning (2020) World Champion was Pauline Ferrand-Prévot of France.

A preview by Olympics.com noted the favourites as Rissveds, Kate Courtney of the United States (2018 World Champion and 2019 World Cup series winner), Jolanda Neff and Sina Frei of Switzerland (test event winner and runner-up), and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (2019 & 2020 World Champion).

Qualification
A National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter up to 3 qualified cyclists in the cross-country. Quota places are allocated to the NOC, which selects the cyclists. Qualification is primarily through the UCI nation rankings, with 30 of the 38 quota places available through that pathway. The top 2 NOCs earned 3 quota places. NOCs ranked 3rd through 7th earned 2 quota places. NOCs ranked 8th through 21st earned 1 quota places. The second path to qualification was continental tournaments for Africa, the Americas, and Asia; the top NOC at each tournament (which had not already earned a quota place) received 1 place. The third path was the 2019 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships. The top 2 NOCs (without a quota place yet) in the Elite category earned a place; the top 2 NOCs in the U-23 category (without a quota, including through the Elite category) also earned a place. The host nation was reserved one place, to be reallocated through the rankings if Japan earned a place normally. Because qualification was complete by the end of the 2020 UCI Track Cycling World Championships on 1 March 2020 (the last event that contributed to the 2018–20 rankings), qualification was unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Competition format
The competition is a mass-start, five-lap race. There is only one round of competition. The mountain bike course is 4.1 km long, with sudden changes in elevation, narrow dirt trails, and rocky sections. The vertical height is 150 m. Riders with times 80% slower than the leader's first lap are eliminated.