The axial velocity distribution in a gas cyclone has been examined with two-dimensional particle image velocimetry (2D-PIV) and three-dimensional particle image velocimetry (3D-PIV) experiments in this study. Due to the limitation of 2D-PIV configuration, the contamination generated by the strong tangential velocity in the cyclone can be registered in the axial velocity detected by 2D-PIV. Efficient methods are proposed in this work to remove this contamination. The contamination-removed 2D-PIV data agree well with 3D-PIV results. The distributions of the axial velocity are also computed by the Reynolds stress model (RSM) and verified using the PIV experimental results. Reasonable agreements are obtained.