Coin Toss or Run Off?

Photo by USATF/Getty Images

It's never happened before. A tie for the 3rd spot on an Olympic Team. It's so rare, there were not any rules in place giving USATF guidance on how to handle it. So they made some up.

At the Olympic Trials in Euguene over the weekend, Allyson Felix and Jeneba Tarmoh, tied at 11.068 seconds for the 100 meter race. Despite it being called for Tarmoh, after reviewing photographs taken at 3,000 frames per second, officials determined it was a complete tie.

So how does this get decided? USATF decided to give the athletes a choice on whether there would be a coin toss or run off. If they agree on which option they prefer, that method will be used; if there is a disagreement, a runoff will be held. It must be decided by the time the Trials end this weekend.

Gahhhh! What a choice....I'm very curious what they'll choose. Neither one is very appealing. A coin toss seems to invalidate all the hard work these athletes do to get there. But doing another race, could have big repercussions as well. They will likely wait to decide until the 200 meter race on Thursday the 28th, as both will be competing in that distance as well.

I'll be waiting to find out what they choose...with bated breath!