Paris 2024 Olympics to include repechage round from 200m to 1,500m

Beginning with the 2024 Olympics in Paris, World Athletics will introduce a repechage round in solo athletics events from the 200m to the 1,500m (including hurdles), World Athletics announced Monday. This will replace the non-automatic-qualifier (q) system currently used alongside automatic qualifying (Q) placements in each event, giving athletes without an auto-qualifying placement an extra chance to advance to the semi-finals in their event.

The system is used in various sports, including rowing, fencing and martial arts, and comes from the French repêcher, which means to fish out, or rescue.

Currently, the top finishers in each event automatically advance to the next round, based on placement; the number of athletes varies from event to event, and a small number of non-automatic qualifers also advance based on time.

For example, in the 200m at the World Championships in Eugene, the top three finishers in each heat advanced automatically, and those with the three fastest non-automatic-qualifying times (out of all the heats) also went through to the semis.

In the new system, the top finishers in each heat will still advance, but instead of non-automatic qualifiers, all remaining finishers will race an additional (repechage) round, with the top finishers advancing to the semi-final. The new rule will mean that every athlete gets to race at least twice in their event. (This will not apply at the next year’s World Championships in Budapest.)

The 100m will not have a repechage round, since that event already has a preliminary qualifying round before the heats.

Some athletes, including multiple Canadian record holder Gabriela DeBues-Stafford (who did not compete at World Championships due to injury), reacted negatively to news about the new rule; in a tweet, she asserted that “This creates way more problems than it solves,” for example, adding another race to the schedule puts those who advance via the repechage round at a disadvantage in the semi-finals. 

To learn more about the new rule, click here.