Athletics is a group of sporting events that involves competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking. The most common types of athletics competitions are track and field, road running, cross-country running, and racewalking.
A relay race is a racing competition where members of a team take turns completing parts of racecourse or performing a certain action. Relay races take the form of professional races and amateur games. Relay races are common in running, orienteering, swimming, cross-country skiing, biathlon, or ice skating. In the Olympic Games, there are several types of relay races that are part of track and field. Relay race, also called Relay, is a track-and-field sport consisting of a set number of stages (legs), usually four, each leg run by different members of a team. The runner finishing one leg is usually required to pass the next runner a stick-like object known as a "baton" while both are running in a marked exchange zone. In most relays, team members cover equal distances: Olympic events for both men and women are the 400-metre and 1,600-metre relays. Some non-Olympic relays are held at distances of 800 m, 3,200 m, and 6,000 m. In the less frequently run medley relays, however, the athletes cover different distances in a prescribed order—as in a sprint medley of 200, 200, 400, 800 metres or a distance medley of 1,200, 400, 800, 1,600 metres.
A pentathlon is a contest featuring five events. The name is derived from Greek: combining the words pente (five) and -athlon (competition). The first pentathlon was documented in Ancient Greece and was part of the Ancient Olympic Games. Five events were contested over one day for the Ancient Olympic pentathlon, starting with the long jump, javelin throwing, and discus throwing, followed by the stadion and wrestling. Pentathletes were considered to be among the most skilled athletes, and their training was often part of military service—each of the five events in the pentathlon was thought to be useful in war or battle.
Cycling at the 2004 Summer Olympics consisted of 18 events in three disciplines:
Alison Jane Sydor is a Canadian retired professional cross-country mountain cyclist. She began cycling at age 20 and is a graduate of the University of Victoria. She won a silver medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in mountain bike, and has won three world mountain bike championships gold medals and the 2002 relay race in Kaprun, Austria.
The men's cross-country event in cycling at the 2004 Summer Olympics consisted of 1 start loop and 7 full loops around a circuit - totalling 43.3 km. The race started at 11:00 on 28 August 2004.
These are the official results of the Women's Mountainbike Race at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. There were a total number of 27 participants, with two non-finishers, in this inaugural Olympic event, over 31.8 kilometres, held on July 30, 1996. The mountain biking events were held at the Georgia International Horse Park in Conyers, Georgia, located 30 miles (50 km) east of Atlanta.
The women's road race was one of the cycling events at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. It took place on 10 August 2008, featuring 66 women from 33 countries. It was the seventh appearance of an Olympic women's road race event and featured a longer course than any of the previous six races. The race was run on the Urban Road Cycling Course, which is 102.6 kilometres (63.8 mi) total. Including a second lap around the 23.8 km (14.8 mi) final circuit, the total distance of the women's race was 126.4 km (78.5 mi), less than half the length of the men's race.
The cycling competitions at the 2012 Olympic Games in London took place at five venues between 28 July and 12 August. The venues were the London Velopark for track cycling and BMX, and Hadleigh Farm, in Essex, for mountain biking. The road races took place over a course starting and ending in The Mall in central London and heading out into Surrey, while the time trials started and finished at Hampton Court Palace in Richmond upon Thames. Eighteen events were contested and around 500 athletes participated.
Brazil sent a delegation to compete at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, held from 12–28 February 2010. The Brazilian team consisted of five athletes competing in three sports.
The triathlon events at the 2012 Summer Olympics were held in Hyde Park in London, United Kingdom, with the women's triathlon held on 4 August and the men's on 7 August. 110 triathletes from 39 countries competed with 55 men and 55 women competing. The races were held over the "international distance" and consisted of 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) swimming, 43 kilometres (27 mi) road cycling, and 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) road running.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to cycling:
The women's cross-country cycling event at the 2012 Olympic Games in London took place at Hadleigh Farm on 11 August.
The cycling competitions of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo featured 22 events in five disciplines. The 2020 Olympics were postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jolanda Neff is a Swiss cyclist, who primarily rides in the cross-country cycling and cyclo-cross disciplines, for the Trek Factory Racing team. She won the gold medal in the women's cross-country event at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
Gracie Elvin is an Australian former racing cyclist, who rode professionally between 2012 and 2020, for the Faren–Honda Team and Mitchelton–Scott. Elvin is a two-time winner of the Australian National Road Race Championships, with victories in 2013 and 2014, and the first Australian rider to record a podium finish at the Tour of Flanders for Women, with second in 2017.
Alice Barnes is an English racing cyclist, who rides for UCI Women's WorldTeam Human Powered Health.
The rate of participation of women in the Olympic Games has been increasing since their first participation in 1900. Some sports are uniquely for women, others are contested by both sexes, while some older sports remain for men only. Studies of media coverage of the Olympics consistently show differences in the ways in which women and men are described and the ways in which their performances are discussed. The representation of women on the International Olympic Committee has run well behind the rate of female participation, and it continues to miss its target of a 20% minimum presence of women on their committee.
Austria competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Originally scheduled to take place from 24 July to 9 August 2020, the Olympic Games were postponed to 23 July to 8 August 2021, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was the nation's twenty-eighth appearance at the Summer Olympics.
Blanka Kata Vas is a Hungarian professional racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Women's WorldTeam SD Worx. She rode in the women's road race event at the 2020 UCI Road World Championships, and in the women's cross-country event at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
