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U.S. Hurdler Freddie Crittenden Took Full Advantage of New Olympics Repechage Rule

Crittenden worked smarter not harder.

Tim Capurso

Freddie Crittenden trains for the U.S. Olympic Trials at Grand Canyon University on Thursday, June 20, 2024.
Freddie Crittenden trains for the U.S. Olympic Trials at Grand Canyon University on Thursday, June 20, 2024. / Joe Rondone/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK

American hurdler Freddie Crittenden worked smarter not harder during a preliminary race in the men's 110m hurdles on Sunday at the Paris Olympics. In a bizarre sight, Crittenden jogged his way to last place in the heat, finishing with a time of 18.27 seconds. Normally, finishing in last place in a first-round race would mean Crittenden would be leaving Paris empty-handed.

But it was all part of the plan for the U.S. hurdler.

Crittenden, who had suffered a minor injury while training for the race on Saturday, decided not to push himself through the injury and take his chances in an additional race in the repechage round, a new rule that gives runners who didn't qualify for the semifinals in their first round heats another chance at doing so in an additional race.

"So, it was an intentional choice," Crittenden said. "It was either get top three or everyone gets through to the repechage. Every athlete has a chance to race in 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 repechage round. Come out and try to kill it in repechage round."

Clearly, Crittenden and his doctors felt there was a chance he could further aggravate the injury if he went all-out in the preliminary heat. Instead of doing so, he decided to defer the all-out effort to a repechage round, which will take place on Tuesday.

But with an extra day of rest, will Crittenden still be a full go for the repechage round?

"I'm going all out," Crittenden said. "All out, Everything I got, repechage round. Yep."

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Tim Capurso
TIM CAPURSO

Tim Capurso is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Prior to joining SI in November 2023, he wrote for RotoBaller and ClutchPoints, where he was the lead editor for MLB, college football and NFL coverage. A lifelong Yankees and Giants fan, Capurso grew up just outside New York City and now lives near Philadelphia. When he's not writing, he enjoys reading, exercising and spending time with his family, including his three-legged cat Willow, who, unfortunately, is an Eagles fan.