What is the Olympics repechage and why has it gone so wrong?

An innovation aimed at improving the spectacle for fans has brought elements of farce with athletes idling and a three-runner race

Approaching the halfway point of the Paris Olympics athletics programme, the introduction of a repechage round has already proved controversial.
Aimed at giving athletes a second chance of making the semi-finals, it has resulted in mass no-shows, athletes deliberately losing in a bid to game the system and unhappiness at the additional physical burden placed on affected runners.
Here is everything you need to know about the new system.
The repechage system, another way of saying ‘rescue’ round, has been used for some time across various Olympic sports, including track cycling, rowing and wrestling. But this is the first time it has ever been employed in athletics.
It aims to give first-round losers a second opportunity to make the semi-finals, by allowing all competitors who did not directly advance from the heats an extra qualification race to progress in the competition.
In Paris, it is being used at every track distance from the 100m hurdles and 110m hurdles up to the 1500m. The only track events without a repechage are the flat 100m and distances above a mile. World Athletics says that is because the 100m already has a preliminary round (contested only by athletes who did not hit the required Olympic qualification standard), while it would not be appropriate in long-distance events, which require “proper recovery between rounds”.
Previously, athletics has employed the fastest-losers method to determine which non-automatic qualifiers – i.e. those who failed to finish in the top two or three – progress to the semi-finals based on their times.
Take Britain’s Josh Kerr at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, for example. Kerr ran a stinker in the opening round of the 1500m and advanced to the semi-finals only as a fastest loser. He then went on to win bronze.
In Paris, he, like every other runner who did not automatically qualify, would have been placed in the repechage, regardless of what time had been posted in the first round.
Announcing the decision to implement the repechage at these Olympics, World Athletics president Lord Coe in 2022 explained: “This is an innovation which will make progression in these events more straightforward for athletes and will build anticipation for fans and broadcasters.
“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.”
The repechage has never before been used in international athletics and, notably, it will not be in place for next year’s World Championships, where the programme reverts to the fastest-losers system.
The athletics competition descended into farce on Monday when eight of the 26 runners in the men’s 400m repechage round failed to show up, and another dropped out mid-race. One heat even had four people not appear, leaving the three remaining runners marooned in lanes three, four and eight.
It is believed the eight absentees chose not to put themselves through the hardship of an additional draining race and instead save themselves for the 4x400m. Athletes who compete in the repechage will have raced four times if they make the final, whereas those who progress automatically from the heats will have raced three times.
All three male Japanese 400m runners did not turn up for their repechage races, suggesting team orders had come into play ahead of the relay.
Interestingly, the multiple no-shows were not replicated in the women’s 400m repechage heats on Tuesday morning, when only one of the 27 athletes due to compete did not appear.
The repechage has unintentionally created the unusual sight of athletes deliberately losing. Some athletes have tactically eased down when out of contention in their first-round heats in order to save their energy for a second bite of the cherry in the repechage.
That was taken to the greatest extreme by American Freddie Crittenden, the second-fastest 110m hurdler in the world this year. Crittenden deliberately finished last in his heat on Sunday, strolling out of the blocks and slowly jogging over the barriers to finish in 18.27sec – almost five seconds behind the winner.
Afterwards, he explained he had been struggling with an injury and wanted to give his body more time to recover before the repechage round.
“It was an intentional choice,” he said. “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.”
Two days later, he returned to action and won his repechage heat in 13.42sec, the quickest time of the round. His gamble had paid off handsomely.
As is to be expected in a sport where some benefit and some are disadvantaged, athletes have been divided about the repechage.
Lithuania’s Gabija Galvydyte clocked a personal best time in the women’s 800m heats and would have progressed as one of the fastest losers under the previous system. But she then failed to advance from the repechage.
“There wasn’t enough time to recover,” she said. “I raced at 8.30pm, went to sleep at 2am and then I had to wake up early for the repechage in the morning.
“I’m a bit confused that everyone makes the repechage, so, if you see that you’re not going to finish in the top three, you can just jog and you’ll still make it. It doesn’t make sense.
“I tried to compete for third place, so I went all out in my heat and finished fourth. I tried to go all the way, gave it my all, got a personal best and it cost all my emotion.”
Australian 1500m runner Stewie McSweyn crashed out of the repechage a day after posting a time in the heats that would have been quick enough to progress as a fastest loser under the old system.
“It’s brutal,” he said. “The standard of the men’s 1500m is so good that you have 24 hours less rest than everyone else and you’re going to be really up against it. It’s exciting for the crowd, which I like. But it makes it difficult. I don’t think we’re going to have too many miracle stories of guys coming from the repechage into the final.”
So far, that has been the case. None of the six men’s 1500m repechage qualifiers finished higher than eighth in the semi-finals, while no women’s 800m repechage qualifier fared better than fifth. It seems the demands of the repechage are taking their toll.