The UCI has announced that an equal number of qualification places will be available for men and women at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028, 257 for each across all cycling disciplines.
Athletes will be competing for 22 gold medals across road, track, MTB, BMX racing and BMX freestyle disciplines, making cycling the third largest sport at the Olympics.
The UCI introduced gender parity for the 2024 Paris Olympics, with the same total number of places and medals continuing for the 2028 Games.
Going back to the previous 2020 Tokyo Olympics, although MTB and BMX events were open to equal numbers of male and female participants, road events had offered more men’s than women’s starts: 67 for women and 130 for men.
Track cycling parity was also achieved for the first time at the Paris Olympics, by adding another seven women’s places.
Women’s cycling’s profile increases
The announcement of gender parity at the LA Olympics reinforces the increasing profile of women’s cycling.
Zwift released a report on the state of women’s cycling ahead of the 2025 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, which highlighted the progress made since the event’s first staging in 2022, declaring "a golden era for women's cycling".
The 2025 race was broadcast in 190 countries and is reported to have attracted a worldwide audience of 120 million, including 26 million in France alone. The 2026 race route is the longest yet and includes a queen-stage finish atop Mont Ventoux.
The increase in the UCI’s mandated minimum salary for women cyclists has also helped increase the attraction of the sport for women, with Zwift’s report pointing to an increase from €15,000 in 2020 to €31,728 in 2025 for Women’s WorldTour riders and an average 2024 salary of €40,000.
Canyon//SRAM zondacrypto’s Anastasiya Kolesava says that the increase in pay has been matched by an increase in competitiveness: “To be honest, it’s insane how everything has changed. So many riders are now super strong on the climbs and the speeds we race at are so much higher – even if there is generally a lot more climbing in races / stages now,” she states.
The Cyclists’ Alliance, set up to provide an independent voice for women’s professional cycling, highlights that gains are in large part confined to the top tier of the women’s sport, though.
Its survey of women riders revealed that 84% of riders in third-tier Continental teams earned under €20,000 and 42% had a second job to make ends meet, and highlighted a poor career pathway for riders.
There’s increasing parity in prize money for races, though, with some one-day races and stage races, including the Amstel Gold Race and Tour Down Under and all races organised by Flanders Classics, offering equal prize money for men and women.
The Tour de France continues to favour male riders, though, with Tadej Pogačar winning 10 times Pauline Ferrand-Prévot’s €50,000 and a men’s Tour prize pot of over €2.5m versus €259,430 for the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.
