Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images
Team USA hurdler Freddie Crittenden finished five seconds off the pace in his preliminary heat Sunday. But it was part of a bigger strategy.
Freddie Crittenden entered the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics as one of the hurdlers to watch in the men’s 110-meter hurdles. He placed fourth at the World Championships and his best time this year was the second-fastest in the world. However, after he came out of the blocks Sunday in his first heat at the Summer games, he was certainly off the pace. Crittenden finished last in his heat, nearly five seconds behind the rest of the field.
Was something wrong? Was Crittenden battling an injury? Was the Olympic dream he had sacrificed years for — including working multiple jobs while struggling to pay bills — already over?
Or was Crittenden taking advantage of a new rule for the 2024 Paris Summer Games?
It was the latter point, as Crittenden explained afterward:
Back in 2022 World Athletics, the governing body for international track and field, announced the implementation of a new rule for specific sprinting and hurdling events, that is in place for the 2024 Summer Games for the first time. Known as “repechage,” this alters how qualification for the semifinals in some events is handled.
Previously the top finishers in each heat, coupled with additional athletes with the best times regardless of heat, would advance to the semifinals. However now under the repechage rule, in individual races from the 200-meter dash up to the 1,500, as well as the women’s 100-meter, men’s 110-meter, and 400-meter hurdles, runners who do not automatically qualify out of their preliminary heat will be entered into an additional race with a chance to make the semifinals.
To put it simply: They get a do-over.
“After consulting with our athletes and broadcasters, we believe this is an innovation which will make progression in these events more straightforward for athletes and will build anticipation for fans and broadcasters,” World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said back in 2022 when the change was announced. “The repechage rounds will give more exposure to our sport during the peak Olympic period and will be carefully scheduled to ensure that every event on our Olympic programme retains its share of the spotlight.”
While the rule was introduced to help elite runners who might have suffered a bad start or struggled in a particular race, Crittenden used the repechage rule to help his body recover from a right abductor muscle aggravation that he sustained Saturday during training. Under the previous format he would have had no choice but to push himself in hopes of reaching the semifinals, but by completing his heat on Sunday he is now placed into the repechage round on Tuesday, and he has more time to recover.
Completing his heat is a critical point, because runners who are disqualified, do not start, or do not finish their race cannot move into the repechage round.
“Obviously the timing is terrible. This is the biggest meet of my life,” Crittenden said. “If there wasn’t a repechage round, I probably would have been balls to the walls, ran as hard as I could, crash and burn, whatever happens. But now I’ve got a couple days, and I’ll do that on Tuesday.
“It was an intentional choice,” Crittenden added. “Everyone gets through to the repechage. … So I decided to just, not make an emotional choice, make a smart choice, give my body time to recover a little bit from being aggravated, lean on my medical doctors, lean on God, and just wait for the repechage round, come out here and try to kill it in the repechage round.”
However, the addition of the repechage round does mean that athletes who go that route compete in potentially four races instead of three. For Crittenden in particular, he faces a quick turnaround following Tuesday’s repechage round, if he indeed advances to the semifinals. The semifinals are set for Wednesday, with the 110-meter final taking place on Thursday. If Crittenden manages to advance to the final, he will race on three straight days.
In addition to the 110-meter hurdles, here are the rest of the events that include a repechage round at the 2024 Summer Games:
Men’s events
110-meter hurdles
200 meters
400 meters
800 meters
1,500 meters
Women’s events
100-meter hurdles
200 meters
400 meters
800 meters
1,500 meters
We will see on Tuesday if Crittenden’s strategic decision pays off.
