The men's sprint at the 2008 Summer Olympics took place on August 17–19 at the Laoshan Velodrome.

He faced his teammate Jason Kenny in the final, the first time since 1984 that one nation had taken the top two spots.

[1] The People's Republic of China, Estonia, and Russia each made their debut in the men's sprint.

Each National Olympic Committee (NOC) could qualify up to 2 cyclists; there were a total of 21 quota places.

This repechage also consisted of three-cyclist heats, with the two winners moving on to the quarterfinals and the rest of the cyclists competing in a 9th to 12th place classification race.

In addition, the bronze medal competition was a best-of-three match between the semifinal losers.

Chris Hoy set a new Olympic record of 9.815 seconds in the qualifying round.

[10] During the same session as the semifinals, the four cyclists who were eliminated in the second round repechage were put into a single four-man race to determine exact placings from ninth to twelfth.

[11] In the same session as the finals, the four cyclists who lost in the quarterfinals were put into one four-man 200 metre race to determine exact placings from fifth to eighth.