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PARIS — As the athletes walked off the track Sunday morning for the second heat of the men’s 110-meter hurdles, one of them moved with less urgency than the rest.
American Freddie Crittenden, the second-fastest 110m hurdler in the world this year, ran throughout the heat and finished nearly five seconds behind the second-to-last competitor.
The decision not to run at full speed was strategic, Crittenden explained afterwards. The 30-year-old did not want to risk aggravating the discomfort in his right abductor muscle that he had suffered the day before.
World class.
Das hätte ich nach ne bisschen Training auch geschafft…
Im Ernst: Der US-Hürdenläufer Freddie Crittenden will sich damit einen Tag mehr Luft verschaffen, weil er leicht verletzt ist. Morgen ist der neu eingeführte „Hoffnungslauf“.
Cool.#Paris2024 #Olympic Games image.twitter.com/F4gMLWMGbA
– Murtaza Akbar (@Akbar_offiziell) August 4, 2024
Had Crittenden run at full speed, he could have finished in the top three in his heat and automatically qualified for Wednesday’s semifinals, but he also risked injuring himself too seriously to continue competing. He now has two days to recover before Tuesday’s play-off round that offers the 110m hurdles a second chance to advance.
“Obviously, the timing is terrible. This is the biggest race of my life,” Crittenden said. “If there hadn’t been a repechage round, I probably would have been going full speed, racing as fast as I could, crashing and burning, whatever happened. But now I have a couple of days and I’ll do it on Tuesday.”
Social media users who were quick to criticize Crittenden for his persistence clearly didn’t know his story. The unsponsored hurdler worked several jobs for years and struggled to pay his bills while pursuing a dream that remained just out of reach.
In just the past two years, Crittenden, a late bloomer, has shown shoe companies who have overlooked him what they are missing. Last year he made his first team for the World Championships and placed fourth in Budapest. Then, at the U.S. Olympic trials earlier this summer, Crittenden outpaced everyone except Grant Holloway to punch his ticket to Paris.
Holloway, Crittenden and fellow American Daniel Roberts arrived in Paris with dreams of a 1-2-3 win in the 110m hurdles. That chance now depends on how Crittenden’s muscle injury heals.
Crittenden struck an upbeat tone when asked how confident he was he would feel well enough to race Tuesday.
“In a couple of days I think I’ll feel even better,” he said, “and I’ll be able to give it my all.”