Olympic viewers were left completely confused when American athlete Freddie Crittenden jogged his way through his 110m hurdles heat at the weekend, but his decision may have just massively paid off.
Team USA star Crittenden left fans bemused when he pulled up in his heat on Sunday, before jogging to the finish line in a leisurely time of 18.27 seconds.
Unsurprisingly, he finished last in his heat – some five seconds behind the winner.
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But due to a change in athletics rules, he was not eliminated from the Games.
Traditionally track events at the Olympics start with the heats, with the best finishers qualifying for the semi-finals or final depending on the event.
However, back in 2022, athletics' governing body World Athletics introduced repechage rounds in some events, essentially a second chance for athletes who failed to impress in the heats to qualify for the next round.
Speaking after the race on Sunday, Crittenden revealed that he had intentionally jogged on the advice of medical professionals.
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"It was an intentional choice," Crittenden told NBC.
"Everyone gets through to the repechage… so I decided to just, not make an emotional choice, make a smart choice, give my body time to recover a little bit from being aggravated, lean on my medical doctors, lean on god, and just wait for the repechage round, come out here and try to kill it in the repechage round."
At the Olympics, the top three finishers in each heat advanced to the 110 metre hurdles semi-finals and, had he attempted to qualify via this method, Crittenden may have aggravated an injury.
But with the repechage races only taking place on Thursday, Crittenden gave himself two more days to recover before giving it his all to reach the semi-finals.
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His gamble looks like it could pay off, with the draw for the repechage round now complete.
The American, who has a ranking of fourth in the competition, has been drawn in the first of three repechage races and is the clear favourite in race one.
His closest rival is the number 15 ranked Asier Martinez, with every other competitor in the race outside the top 40.
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To put that into perspective, Crittenden's personal best in 12.93 seconds, while Martinez's is 13.14.
The American has also avoided the third repechage race, which includes three of the top 20 ranked athletes including French athlete Wilhem Belocian.
NBC have since described his decision to cruise his initial heat as a '200 IQ' move.
But this will only prove to be true if he manages to make it through to the semi-finals.
Rory O'Callaghan