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Massive cycling crash takes out 7 athletes, including defending champ

The women's cycling omnium event delivered one of the most frightening moments of the Olympics, with nearly half of the field in the first scratch race not finishing due to crashes.

The second-to-last lap of the race saw two collisions. The first, less serious one came at the back of the pack when Yao Pang of Hong Kong went down and ended up taking Lithuania's Olivija Baleisyte with her.

The big one came just seconds later.

In the middle of the pack, Italy's Elisa Balsamo lost control of her bike and directly hit Ireland's Emily Kay.