What is track's repechage round? Explaining new Olympic qualifying procedure for sprinters
SAINT-DENIS, France — Olympic track and field has a new race for the 2024 Paris Games. Well, kind of.
For the first time in Olympic history the track portion of the Games will include a “repechage round” — loosely translated from French to mean “second chance” — for sprinters and hurdlers.
In the past, athletes qualified to the semifinals of their respective races by finishing in the top two or three (depending on how many heats there are) or qualifying on time. This is sometimes called the “lucky loser” system.
But qualifying on time has been done away with in favor of the repechage round for some events. That means runners who don’t automatically qualify based on their heat finish will instead head to the repechage round, which will give those athletes a second chance to qualify for the semifinals. It also means sprinters and hurdlers who qualified for the Olympics will be able to run a minimum of two races; it also means someone who advances through the repechage round will have run one more race than their competitors.
This new format means the order for races will go qualifying heats, repechage, semifinals, finals.
World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said in 2022 that adding a repechage round will “make these events more straightforward for our athletes and build anticipation for fans and broadcasters.”
A handful of other sports use repechage rounds already, including rowing and, sometimes, wrestling.
Which track events get a second chance?
Six individual men’s and women’s events will have repechage rounds at the Paris Olympics.
Men’s events with repechage:
- 110m hurdles
- 200m
- 400m
- 800m
- 1,500m
Women’s events with repechage:
- 100m hurdles
- 200m
- 400m
- 800m
- 1,500m