A total of 15 nations will take part in two-rider teams for 2024 Olympic Games glory in the men’s Madison. The competition takes place at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome, located 35km from Paris near venues hosting mountain biking, BMX racing, equestrian and golf.
While the men’s Madison has been contested for more than a century, taking its name from the New York City venue at which the discipline originated, Madison Square Garden, the event did not make its first appearance in the Olympic Games until 2000 in Sydney. After three Olympics, it was dropped, then reinstated at the 2020 Tokyo Games when the event was held for men and women.
The UCI has included the men’s Madison at the Track World Championships since 1995, while the women have competed for the rainbow jersey since 2016.
A winning Madison team is determined by points rather than time, and these points are amassed over 200 laps (50 kilometres). Sprints are contested every 10 laps, with the top four teams rewarded, and the final lap offers double points.
Tactics come into play when a team tries to lap the field, which earns 20 bonus points, and any team that gets lapped then has 20 points deducted.
But the spectators seem to respond the most to the sequence of choreographed relay exchanges between teammates. Each rider takes a turn being “active” on the track, while the other is “inactive” and coasts while waiting for a relay swap, which can be made at any time. Many exchanges are made by teammates gripping hands and then launching one rider forward with a ‘handsling’ motion.
Men’s Madison competitors
- Kelland O’Brien (Australia)
- Oliver Bleddyn (Australia)
- Sam Welsford (Australia)
- Maximilian Schmidbauer (Austria)
- Tim Wafler (Austria)
- Lindsay de Vylder (Belgium)
- Robbe Ghys (Belgium)
- Fabio van den Bossche (Belgium)
- Michael Foley (Canada)
- Mathias Guillemette (Canada)
- Denis Rugovac (Czechia)
- Jan Vones (Czechia)
- Michael Mørkøv (Denmark)
- Rasmus Lund Pedersen (Denmark)
- Niklas Larsen (Denmark)
- Thomas Boudat (France)
- Valentin Tabellion (France)
- Benjamin Thomas (France)
- Roger Kluge (Germany)
- Theo Reinhardt (Germany)
- Tobias Buck-Gramcko (Germany)
- Ethan Hayter (Great Britain)
- Oliver Wood (Great Britain)
- Simone Consonni (Italy)
- Elia Viviani (Italy)
- Filippo Ganna (Italy)
- Shunsuke Imamura (Japan)
- Eiya Hashimoto (Japan)
- Kazushige Kuboki (Japan)
- Jan Willem van Schip (Netherlands)
- Yoeri Havik (Netherlands)
- Campbell Stewart (New Zealand)
- Aaron Murray Gate (New Zealand)
- Iuri Leitao (Portugal)
- Rui Filipe Alves Oliveira (Portugal)
- Sebastian Mora Vedri (Spain)
- Albert Torres Barcelo (Spain)
Men’s Madison contenders
The Netherlands is the reigning world champion in the men’s Madison, and the winning pair of Jan Willem van Schip and Yoeri Havik are the favourites for gold in Paris. They finished fifth in Tokyo, so are looking to take the first Olympic gold for the Dutch men in the discipline.
Denmark’s Michael Mørkøv won the Olympic gold medal in Tokyo with time triallist Lasse Norman Hansen, and the duo also won a pair of World Championships. However, this time the four-time Olympian Mørkøv will combine his sprint speed with either Rasmus Lund Pedersen or Niklas Larsen, so it is a bit of an unknown.
Taking silver at the last two World Championships was Great Britain, and the pair – Oliver Bleddyn and road pro Ethan Hayter – will be chasing a spot better at the Olympic Games. Three years ago at the Tokyo Games, it was Hayter and Matthew Walls who earned silver, which came to a tie-breaker with the French team of Benjamin Thomas and Donavan Grondin when both teams scored 40 points.
The French team will again have 2022 Madison world champion Thomas, but he will join forces in these Olympic Games with Thomas Boudat. The duo finished sixth at Worlds last year.
New Zealand brings veterans Campbell Stewart and Aaron Gate and they earned the bronze medal at the World Championships last year by just one point.
Men’s Madison schedule
- August 10: Men’s Madison – 17:59 CET
