Losing to win: The controversial loophole that makes Olympic athletes lose on purpose

The Olympics present the biggest stage in athletics – a make or break shot at proving yourself to be the best in the world in front of billions of people. Except this year, it’s really not so make or break...

The Paris 2024 Olympic Games sees the introduction of the repechage round, brought in by World Athletics, which sees athletes who have run last in heats get a second shot at finals qualification.

We saw it with Australian hurdler Michelle Jenneke, who had a disastrous run, tripping over two hurdles on Wednesday to finish well behind the rest of the pack – and in a completely different lane to the one she started in. But because she simply finished the race, she earned a shot at redemption in the repechage round.

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While you can argue about deserved second chances, such as in Jenneke’s case, where it gets murky is the likes of Freddie Crittenden. The American deliberately lost his heat on Sunday in order to save himself for the repechage round.

In this round, Crittenden, who came to Paris as a favourite in the hurdles, faced a weaker group of athletes for his shot at finals qualification. He would win the repechage race with a time of 13.42, as covered by the Olympics' official site.

Prior to his heat on Sunday, Crittenden was struggling with a slight injury in his leg, so with the repechage round in mind, he opted to not push himself and risk aggravating his injury. 

"It was either get top three or everyone gets through to the repechage. Every athlete has a chance to race in repechage," he said following the race, as reported by the Independent.

"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."

The repechage round more or less exists as a 'best of the rest' type of field, and we wouldn't have expected to see those coming through from this stage to really challenge for the gold. But all that might change thanks to Crittenden’s tactic.

A tactic that has divided fans and experts alike. NBC Sports labeled it as a "200 IQ move", while fans on social media have called it out for going against the Olympic spirit.

Crittenden came second in his semifinal – narrowly missing out on a first place finish with a time of 13.23 to Rasheed Broadbell's 13.21 on Wednesday evening. He now looks well-placed to challenge for the gold in the final on Thursday. Has this move changed the Games forever?

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