PROJECT 4:05: Optimizing USA Cycling’s Women’s Team Pursuit Gold
In Olympic cycling, the difference between gold and missing the podium is measured in fractions of a second. For USA Cycling’s Women’s Team Pursuit squad, the 2023 World Championships in Glasgow highlighted a stark reality: a 6th-place finish with a time of 4:12.684 and missing the qualification round for the bronze medal final by 0.159 seconds. With the Paris 2024 Olympics approaching and the team falling to an 8th-place World Ranking, the challenge was clear: reduce nearly seven seconds off their performance in just one year, an improvement considered nearly impossible in elite sports.
With limited funding compared to powerhouse nations like Great Britain and Germany, USA Cycling relied on Operations Research (OR), Machine Learning (ML), data analytics, race simulation, and targeted athlete development to bridge the gap. Armed with cutting-edge analytics and modeling, real-time performance tracking, and aerodynamic innovations, this initiative aimed at optimizing every aspect of the team’s race strategy. Through the power of data-driven decision-making, USA Cycling achieved what few thought was possible: a stunning eight-second reduction in time to capture Olympic gold, with a time of 4:04.32.
