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.
200 IQ move. Freddie Crittenden jogs through his hurdle heat knowing he will automatically qualify for the repechage round. 🧠 #ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/XavgR7DMev
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 4, 2024
"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."
This article was originally published on www.si.com as U.S. Hurdler Freddie Crittenden Took Full Advantage of New Olympics Repechage Rule .
