The trend in the Olympic sprint competition was toward expansion of a best-of-three match format (beginning in 1932 for the final, expanding in 1936 and 1948 to more rounds); the 1952 edition bucked that trend by returning to an entirely single-race format for the first time since 1928. It also used races with up to five cyclists, where other recent Games had limited individuals races to two or three competitors. A repechage was used after each round instead of only early rounds; late-round races featured three cyclists instead of the head-to-head format that had become common. This also meant that there was no bronze medal match.
