Madison, Women

In 2019 the Dutch pair of Kirsten Wild and Amy Pieters had taken the World Championships, after finishing second in the event in 2018, when they had finished second to the British pair of Kate Archibald and Emily Nelson. Archibald had partnered Neah Evans in 2019 when they placed fourth at the Worlds. For Tokyo 2020 Archibald joined up with the redoubtable Laura Kenny, who already possessed four gold medals from the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, to make a formidable team. It was expected they would battle Wild / Pieters for the gold medal.

Archibald and Kenny served notice early and throughout, winning the first three sprints and nine of the first ten. They had built up an almost insurmountable lead when they broke away at almost 25 km with Denmark’s Amalie Dideriksen and Julie Norman-Leth and Gulnaz Khatuntseva and Mariya Novolodskaya, representing the ROC, as Wild and Pieters were left behind in the pack. The three teams were able to gain a lap, good for 20 bonus points, effectively deciding the podium positions, and guaranteeing that Archibald and Kenny would take gold.

Archibald and Kenny concluded their dominance by winning the final sprint. Khatuntseva and Novolodskaya had few sprint points and garnered bronze only by the 20 bonus points, as Dideriksen and Norman-Leth came home for silver. Wild and Pieters were the best of the rest but missed the podium in fourth.