What is the repechage round and what does it mean for Olympic athletes

by Nomonde Simelane

The 2024 Paris Olympics has been a tournament of many firsts, and the track and field sporting code has come up with an innovative way to provide a shot at redemption for the athletes. Repechage, a word which loosely translates from French to “fish out” or “to rescue” allows competitors who do not initially clinch spots in the semis to race again with a chance of moving on.

Applying only to specific events, namely the women’s and men’s 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m and hurdles events, the repechage round consists of athletes who were not able to automatically qualify for the semifinals. Previously, the athletes with the fastest times were chosen to qualify for the semi-final round, instead of having to run again, which was sometimes referred to as the “lucky loser” system.

In 2022, the World Athletics Council took to their X (formerly Twitter) to issue a press release, revealing their approval of the introduction of the repechage round to specific individual track and field events.

World Athletics President Sebastian Coe further explained that the repechage round will “make these events more straightforward for our athletes and build anticipation for fans and broadcasters.”

South African runners have made the most of this opportunity so far, as a few have gone on to qualify for their respective semi-finals after coming out victorious in the repechage round. Zakithi Nene was able to snatch the first position in the men’s 400m repechage round with a time of 44.81 seconds, while Miranda Coetzee clinched second position in the women’s 400m with an electric personal best time of 50.66, making her the fastest non-automatic qualifier in the semi-finals.

 

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Also see: How South Africa shined at the Olympics this past week