The women's

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States Place names * Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...

event at the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

took place on 6 August 2021 at the

Izu Velodrome The Izu Velodrome is a velodrome in Shizuoka, Japan. It has a 250-metre cycling track and spectator facilities for 3,600 people. It was opened in 2011, and was selected as the venue to host the track cycling events at the 2020 Summer Olympics i ...

. 30 cyclists (15 teams of 2) from 15 nations competed.

Background

This was the debut appearance of the women's event. The men's Madison was held from 2000 to 2008, then was dropped for 2012 and 2016 because there was no women's equivalent. The event returned in 2020 with a new women's counterpart. The reigning (2020) world champions are

Kirsten Wild Kirsten Carlijn Wild (born 15 October 1982) is a Dutch former professional racing cyclist, who rode professionally between 2004 and 2021, for eight professional teams. During her track cycling career, Wild rode at the Summer Olympic Games in 2012 ...

and

Amy Pieters Amy Pieters (born 1 June 1991) is a Dutch professional road and track cyclist, who is contracted to ride for UCI Women's WorldTeam . She was a member of the Dutch team that finished sixth at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the team pursuit (togeth ...

of the Netherlands. Russia, Germany, China, Great Britain, Australia, and the Netherlands are traditionally strong track cycling nations, while Belgium and France have strong pedigrees in Madison events.

Qualification

National Olympic Committee A National Olympic Committee (NOC) is a national constituent of the worldwide Olympic movement. Subject to the controls of the International Olympic Committee, NOCs are responsible for organizing their people's participation in the Olympic Games ...

(NOC) could enter up to 1 team of 2 cyclists in the madison. Quota places are allocated to the NOC, which selects the cyclists. Qualification is entirely through the 2018–20 UCI nation rankings. The 8 top nations in the team pursuit rankings automatically qualified a team in the Madison. The best 8 NOCs in the madison rankings (not already qualified through the team pursuit) also qualified to enter madison teams. The NOCs qualifying ''directly'' in the madison also earned 1 spot in the omnium. Because qualification was complete by the end of the

2020 UCI Track Cycling World Championships The 2020 UCI Track Cycling World Championships were held in Berlin, Germany from 26 February to 1 March 2020. Schedule 20 events were held: ''All times are local (UTC+1).'' Medal summary Medal table Men Women *Shaded events are no ...

on 1 March 2020 (the last event that contributed to the 2018–20 rankings), qualification was unaffected by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

Competition format

A madison race is a tag team points race that involves all 16 teams competing at once. One cyclist from each team competes at a time; the two team members can swap at any time by touching (including pushing and hand-slinging). The distance is 120 laps (30 km). Teams scores points in two ways: lapping the field and sprints. A team that gains a lap on the field earns 20 points; one that loses a lap has 20 points deducted. Every 10th lap is a sprint, with the first to finish the lap earning 5 points, second 3 points, third 2 points, and fourth 1 point. The points values are doubled for the final sprint. There is only one round of competition.

Schedule

All times are

Japan Standard Time , or , is the standard time zone in Japan, 9 hours ahead of UTC ( UTC+09:00). Japan does not observe daylight saving time, though its introduction has been debated on several occasions. During World War II, the time zone was often referred to a ...

(

UTC+9 UTC+09:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +09:00. During the Japanese occupations of British Borneo, Burma, Hong Kong, Dutch East Indies, Malaya, Philippines, Singapore, and French Indochina, it was used as a common time with ...

)

Results

The inaugural title was won in dominant fashion by Great Britain's Laura Kenny and

Katie Archibald Katie Archibald, (born 12 March 1994) is an elite Scottish and British racing cyclist, specialising in endurance track cycling events in which she represents Great Britain and Scotland. A member of the Great Britain 2016 Olympic champion and ...

. Of 12 full sprints, Kenny and Archibald won ten, including the first three spins in a row, six sprints in a row mid race, and the double points sprint to conclude the race; scored in all twelve sprints, and took a lap on the field. Of the theoretically available 65 sprint points, they took 58 - no other team took more than 21. By winning the inaugural women's madison, Laura Kenny completed a hat-trick of inaugural wins, having won (and then defended) the inaugural women's team pursuit and omnium titles in 2012. She also became the first female cyclist, or female British Olympian, to claim five gold medals, making her Great Britain's most successful female Olympian, and the most successful Olympic female cyclist, in history. This mirrored the achievements of her husband Jason Kenny who took the male versions of both these achievements with gold in men's keirin.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cycling at the 2020 Summer Olympics - Women's Madison Women's Madison Women's madison Women's events at the 2020 Summer Olympics 2021 in women's cycle racing