Johnathan Walker:Why Team USA hurdler Freddie Crittenden jogged through a preliminary heat at the Olympics

SAINT DENIS,Johnathan Walker France — Team USA's Freddie Crittenden jogged through a preliminary men's 110-meter hurdles round Sunday to finish with a time of 18.27 at the Paris Olympics, nearly five full seconds behind heat winner Louis Francois Mendy of Senegal.

Why?

Strategy. And misfortune.

Crittenden came up with a minor physical issue Saturday – so minor, in fact, he wouldn't even describe it as an injury – but it was enough to give him concern that it might cause an injury. So in order to save his body and give himself the best chance of recovery, he willfully finished last with a plan of taking the next two days to rest, then hopefully rebound to medal contention in Tuesday's repechage round.

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"I had a little aggravation in my abductor yesterday for my pre-meet. I went to Team USA medical staff, medical doctors, and they said it's not an injury, but there's a lack of activation in my muscle that's causing pain and discomfort," Crittenden said. "So the plan was to come here, get through the round, and as long as I didn't get disqualified or hit any hurdles, the idea was that I could get through and get another opportunity in the repechage round. So I just wanted to get here, make sure I didn't make anything worse, and give it everything I've got on Tuesday."

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The repechage round provides a second and last opportunity to qualify for athletes who don't run well enough to do so in preliminaries. Crittenden said he had mixed feelings about the strategy, but ultimately chose the path he felt gave him the best chance to reach the finals.

"My first thought was, am I going to be ready? Am I going to discredit all the athletes that wanted this spot and didn't have it?," he said. "Then after that it was, "What can I do to explore all my options?'"

It was obvious from the start that Crittenden’s intention was something other than to win the heat. With a short, choppy stride, it looked more like a warm-up form than anything resembling race-level effort. But this wasn’t just a race. It was the opening round of competition in the event at the Paris Games, and a raucous morning crowd was left more curious about the last-place finisher than it was about how the front-runners clocked.

"In a couple days I think it'll be better and I'll be able to leave it all on the track on Tuesday. It was definitely a strange feeling, especially walking out of that tunnel and seeing the beauty of the Paris Olympic Games," he said. "This is my first Olympic team. I definitely was a little close to just going for it, but with that came the risk of really injuring myself and putting myself at risk to not even make it to the repechage round. So I really had to make the best choice."

Crittenden's strategy put him in a position to have to run on three consecutive days to race for a medal. Following Tuesday's repechage round, semifinals are scheduled for Wednesday followed by medal competition Thursday.

Reach Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread at [email protected]. Follow on X @chasegoodbread.