The Madison is a relay race event in track cycling, named after the first Madison Square Garden in New York, and known as the "American race" in French and as Americana in Spanish and in Italian.
One racer propels his partner like a slingshot during a Madison race
"Madison Cottage" on the site of the Fifth Avenue Hotel at Madison Square, NYC, 1852
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.
World Orienteering Championship 2008 gold medal winners in relay
Swimmers about to make the pass during a relay race
A final-leg runner for the University of Wisconsin
Two runners prepare to pass the baton.