Cycling at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Women's Madison

Women's Madison at the Games of the XXXII Olympiad
Olympic track cycling
Venues	Izu Velodrome
Date	6 August 2021
Competitors	30 from 15 nations
Teams	15
Winning points	78
Medalists
Katie Archibald Laura Kenny   Great Britain Amalie Dideriksen Julie Leth   Denmark Gulnaz Khatuntseva Maria Novolodskaya   ROC
2024  →

The women's Madison event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place on 6 August 2021 at the Izu Velodrome. ^[1] 30 cyclists (15 teams of 2) from 15 nations competed. ^[2]

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. ^[3]

The reigning (2020) world champions are Kirsten Wild and Amy Pieters 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

Main article: Cycling at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Qualification

A National Olympic Committee (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. ^[2] Because qualification was complete by the end of the 2020 UCI Track Cycling World Championships on 1 March 2020 (the last event that contributed to the 2018–20 rankings), qualification was unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

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 score 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. ^{[4] [5]}

Schedule

All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+9) ^[6]

Date	Time	Round
6 August 2021	17:15	Final

Results

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

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Sprint												Laps		Finish order	Total [7]
			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	+	−
	Katie Archibald Laura Kenny	Great Britain	5	5	5	2	5	5	5	5	5	5	1	10	20		1	78
	Amalie Dideriksen Julie Leth	Denmark			2		2	1		1	3	3	3		20		9	35
	Gulnaz Khatuntseva Maria Novolodskaya	ROC						3			1	2			20		6	26
4	Amy Pieters Kirsten Wild	Netherlands	3	3	3	3			3				2	4			3	21
5	Clara Copponi Marie Le Net	France	2				3	2		3	2		5	2			4	19
6	Daria Pikulik Wiktoria Pikulik	Poland		1					1			1		6			2	9
7	Georgia Baker Annette Edmondson	Australia		2		5				2							7	9
8	Elisa Balsamo Letizia Paternoster	Italy	1			1											8	2
9	Megan Jastrab Jennifer Valente	United States			1												5	1
10	Lotte Kopecky Jolien D'hoore	Belgium							2							20	11	–18
11	Jessie Hodges Rushlee Buchanan	New Zealand					1									40	10	–39
12	Franziska Brauße Lisa Klein	Germany														40	12	–40
13	Emily Kay Shannon McCurley	Ireland														40	DNF	–
	Yumi Kajihara Kisato Nakamura	Japan														40
	Pang Yao Leung Bo Yee	Hong Kong														40

References

1. "Cycling Track Competition Schedule". Tokyo 2020. Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 18 November 2020.
2. "Qualification System – Games of the XXXII Olympiad – Road Cycling" (PDF). Union Cycliste Internationale . Retrieved 14 February 2015.
3. "Olympic Track Cycling at Tokyo 2020: Top Five Things to Know" . Retrieved 28 June 2021.
4. "UCI CYCLING REGULATIONS PART 3 TRACK RACES" (PDF). UCI. 6 December 2020. Retrieved 18 November 2020.
5. Liam Nee (26 March 2021). "Cycling 101: Competition format". NBC. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
6. "Cycling Track – Competition Schedule" (PDF). olympics.com. TOCOG. 12 July 2021. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 August 2021. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
7. "Cycling Track – Women's Madison – Results" (PDF). olympics.com. TOCOG. 6 August 2021. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 August 2021. Retrieved 6 August 2021.