Sally Pearson: Athletes ‘disappearing’ from Olympics events expose new sporting reality

A new rule at the athletics events at the Paris Olympics has caused a reality we never thought we’d see in sport, writes Sally Pearson.

The jury is still out on the repechage round.

COMMENT

What’s up with athletes disappearing from the repechage rounds at the Paris Olympics?

When the runners for the men’s 400m repechage race stepped out onto the track even the race caller was startled and said “this can’t be a coincidence … surely four athletes haven’t injured themselves”.

That’s right, four athletes pulled out of repechage race one of the men’s 400m.

If they were injured then fine, fair enough, but the commentator for the event seemed to hit the nail on the head by suggesting “the athletes could be saving themselves for the 4x400m relay”.

This wasn’t the only repechage that was missing athletes from that event, race two and three were also missing two athletes each.

I have never experienced a repechage round before because this is first time athletics have included it.

I was excited for the repechage round. It’s made athletes fight for positions rather than times to progress.

Empty lanes in the men's 400m repechage.

I thought it made the men’s 1500m way more competitive and exciting for the TV viewers.

I thought this included round would be a welcome relief for a lot of athletes who missed out with an automatic qualifier to the semi finals. However it seems not for some.

I would hate to be an athlete sitting back at home who wasn’t selected to compete at the Olympics and watching your event being run with empty lanes because the athletes that were selected, decided that they didn’t want to compete anymore or didn’t want to progress any further for one reason or another.

I understand injuries happen but athletes not wanting to progress so that they can concentrate on the relays …. Wow!

The jury is still out on the new repechage round system, says Sally Pearson.

I’m not sure if I’m proud or disappointed, I’m conflicted because this is an individual sport, we train to be the best athletes we can be to compete in our own event, so when you throw a relay into your resume you automatically become an athlete in a team event and you’re not just competing for yourself anymore, you don’t want to let the other members down.

For an athlete who has pulled out of a repechage round to solely focus on helping the relay team compete to their best, then, I can’t think of a bigger selfless act in this sport.

But I do feel for the athletes back home who qualified for that event, who missed selection watching on.

Caleb Law didn’t race his 200m repechage heat. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

In the men’s 200m you also may have noticed that there was an athlete missing in all four rounds including Aussie athlete Caleb Law.

It’s interesting, I heard that he injured his hamstring a few weeks ago and then I heard from an AOC representative that he is concentrating on the relay and let his repechage heat slide.

Does this mean that the first member of the men’s 4x100m relay team has been announced?

It certainly will be interesting which athletes the selectors pick to start on the day. The men’s 4x100 relay is scheduled for 7.35pm on August 8.

Hopefully as the athletics continues we see full lanes through all of the repechage stages so we can see athletes taking full advantage of a second chance, they don’t come around very often.

Sally Pearson is an Olympic gold medallist and one of Australia’s greatest ever track and field athletes. The former world champ is writing exclusively with news.com.au during the Paris Olympics