Paris 2024: What is the repechage round in track?

For the first time in Olympic history, an additional repechage round will take place for all individual track events from 200m to 1,500m. The repechage round (a French term that is also used in wrestling and rowing–from the verb repecher, which means to fish out or rescue), offers athletes who were eliminated in the heats a second chance to qualify for the semi-finals. This means most Canadian track athletes will race at least twice in Paris, whether they narrowly miss out on qualification or finish last in their heat.

The repechage round will debut in the women’s 800m event on Saturday, Aug. 3. Athletes who do not advance in these 800m heats will move to the repechage for another shot at progressing. The number of automatic qualifiers from the heats to the semi-finals varies from event to event. This new repechage round provides a second chance for athletes to keep their Olympic podium dreams alive, replacing the previous method, where the athletes with the fastest non-automatic qualifying times advanced.

Instead of the previous three rounds, events from 200m to 1,500m will now feature four: the first round, the repechage round, the semi-finals and the final. This new round could benefit many Canadian track athletes by giving them an extra chance to shake off their Round 1 nerves. In middle-distance events, navigating the repechage rounds could be more challenging, adding an extra race to an already demanding schedule that requires all athletes to race three times.

The new rounds were announced by World Athletics in July 2022, making Paris 2024 the first major championship to implement them. There will be no repechage for the 100m, which already has preliminary heats before the first round. Similarly, events from 3000m onwards will not have repechage rounds due to the limited recovery time between races.

Athletics at Paris 2024 repechage schedule:

(all times listed in Eastern Standard Time)

Saturday, Aug. 3

• Morning session: Women’s 800m repechage (5:10 a.m. ET)
• Evening session: Men’s 1,500m repechage (1:15 p.m. ET)

Monday, Aug. 5

• Morning session: Women’s 400m hurdles repechage (4:50 a.m. ET)
• Morning session: Men’s 400m repechage (5:20 a.m. ET)
• Morning session: Women’s 200m repechage (6:50 a.m. ET)

Tuesday, Aug. 6

• Morning session: Men’s 110m hurdles repechage (4:50 a.m. ET)
• Morning session: Women’s 400m repechage (5:20 a.m. ET)
• Morning session: Men’s 400m hurdles repechage (6:00 a.m. ET)
• Morning session: Men’s 200m repechage (6:30 a.m. ET)

Wednesday, Aug. 7

• Morning session: Women’s 1,500m repechage (6:35 a.m. ET)

Thursday, Aug. 8

• Morning session: Women’s 100m hurdles repechage (4:35 a.m. ET)
• Morning session: Men’s 800m repechage (6:00 a.m. ET)