This year, the Olympics is debuting a new round of races for most individual track events called the repechage — pronounced rep-eh-shazh. This French term translates to “second chance” or “to fish out,” offering athletes an additional opportunity to qualify for the semifinals.
The repechage applies to the men’s and women’s 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, and hurdles events. Previously, the top finishers in each heat automatically advanced to the semifinals, while runners with the next best times, often referred to as the “lucky losers,” filled the remaining spots.
With the new repechage format, athletes who don’t advance directly to the semifinals will compete in an additional race to secure their spot. Depending on the event, two to six runners from the repechage round will progress to the semifinals, creating four rounds of competition instead of three. This ensures that every competitor in these events will race at least twice during the Olympics.
The men’s and women’s 100m events will not use the repechage format; instead, they will have a preliminary round that serves as a prelude to Round 1, where automatic qualifiers are determined.
