French hurdler Clement Ducos qualifies for 400 meter hurdles final in front of home crowd in Paris

Few things are more meaningful for athletes than a chance to compete in the Olympics, representing their nation at the pinnacle of global athletics. Doing it in front of a home crowd is about the only thing that can make it sweeter.

And that’s just what Clement Ducos did in his qualifying heat of the men’s 400 meter hurdles on Wednesday. The Frenchman, who runs collegiately at Tennessee, raced up from the pack to finish second in his heat.

That finish was good enough to send him to the finals in an upset, and send the French fans in the crowd into rapturous applause and cheers for Ducos.

Tennessee hurdler Clement Ducos SHOCKS Alison dos Santos to punch his ticket to the 400m hurdles final in front of a home crowd. 🇫🇷 #ParisOlympics

📺 NBC & Peacock pic.twitter.com/nz4t3bClRc

— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 7, 2024

An American’s bold gamble paid off in the 110 meter hurdles

There’s confidence and there’s cold calculation. Somewhere in the middle stands 110-meter hurdler Freddie Crittenden, a United States sprinter who showed a remarkable amount of both in qualifying.

Crittenden’s Olympics could have been over when he felt a slight twinge as he ran his qualifying heat of the 110-meter hurdles.

Instead, in a split-second, seemingly, Crittenden ran the math. He could pull up in his qualifier and preserve the muscle he might have just injured or he could sprint it out and hope to make his way through standard qualifying. He opted for the former, seeking the repechage round as his ticket to the 110-meter final.

And, rather brilliantly, the move paid off.

Crittenden ran a 13.23-second time to advance out of the repechage round into the final of one of the sport’s most challenging events. This after he made headlines internationally for simply jogging out his original qualifier.

The former Syracuse sprinter explained that he had strained a right abductor and was trying to be careful about inflaming the injury further.

“So I decided to just not make an emotional choice, make a smart choice,” Crittenden said after his qualifier. “Give my body time to recover a little bit from being aggravated. Lean on my medical doctors. Lean on God. And just wait for repechage round.

“Come out [here] and try to kill it at the repechage round.”

He did just that, getting into the 110-meter hurdles final as the seventh of eight qualifiers. He’s certainly capable of giving a push for the gold medal, though, having entered as the second-fastest in the event in the world this year.