What is the repechage circle on the track and field?
There’s a new round of races for most individual track events at the Olympics this year.
Sarah KezeleAug. 3 2024, at 7:03 AM ET (Updated August. 3rd, 2024 at 1:41 pm ET)
It’s known as the repechagewhich is that’s pronounced rep-eh-shazh — and loosely translate in French into “to fish out” or “second chance.”
Track athletes who compete at the events listed below have an additional roundshould they require it to get to their semifinals in the men’s and women’s 200m 400m 800m, 1500m and hurdles events.
In the past the top finishers based on placing in each heat were automatically go on to the semifinals, and runners who had the best times in the group that did not make it to the semi would fill in the remaining slots at the end of each semi. This group is affectionately called”lucky losers. “lucky losers.”
With the repechage round in place, runners who are unable to notautomatically make it to the semifinals will instead take part in a second race in order to make it to the semis. The event will determine up to six runners are able to advance from the repechage round in order to complete the semifinal field and spectators get four rounds in lieu of just three. This ensures that every participant participating in these events will participate in at least two races in the Olympics.
Interestingly, both the men’s and women’s 100m events are non-repeachable, as each format has the preliminary round. It is a play-in prior to The first Round, that is a round with automatic qualifying rounds.
Repechage is the latest aspect to track and field’s participation in the Olympics However, other sports such as wrestling rowing, judo, and cycling have utilized variants of the second-chance round during their respective Olympic events.