The repechage rule in wrestling has been primarily responsible for at least three medals for India in the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympics in Beijing, London and Rio de Janeiro.
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The Indian contingent in Olympics has seen little success in the last couple of decades. Ever since the start of the 21st century, India has won a total of 12 medals from 2000 till 2016. The best tally for India in their history was in the 2012 London Olympics where they won six medals. In Beijing and Rio, they won two medals. India managed to win only one medal in 1996, 2000, and 2004. However, in three out of the 12 medals, India has managed to win by good fortune within a system.
In 2008, 2012, and 2016, India managed to secure three medals in wrestling. Sushil Kumar won the wrestling bronze in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. 2012 was the best year for India in wrestling as Sushil secured silver and Yogeshwar Dutt grabbed the bronze medal. The Rio Olympics saw Sakshi Malik carry the torch ahead as she bagged the bronze medal.
However, all three medal winners had one thing in common. Apart from the weight category and the sports, they won the medals through repechage. This is a rule that exists in wrestling, judo, taekwondo, and karate. Here, we give an explainer on what is the repechage rule.
Repechage is taken from the French word repecher. This means rescue in English. This is a practice in series competitions that allows participants who failed to meet qualifying standards by a small margin to continue to the next round. The rule was introduced in 2008 and since then, India has benefited immensely.
How does the repchage system work? It comes into effect for the wrestlers who lose in the pre-quarterfinals or later. Wrestlers are given a chance to revive themselves in the competition and compete for a bronze medal or third-place match. It should be noted that the wrestler can revive themselves only if the opponent they lost to reaches the final.
Thus, in a simple way, if Sakshi Malik has lost to his opponent in the qualifying or before the pre-quarterfinals, in normal circumstances she would be eliminated. But, in the repechage, she will go through to the bronze medal playoffs if his opponent enters the final. Not just Sakshi. Everybody whom the player defeated en route to the final will go to the bronze medal playoff. In the same scenario, the semi-finalists earn themselves a spot in the bronze medal playoffs. They will not play against each other. They will face off against the wrestlers who come through the repechage rounds. As a result, two bronze medals are awarded.
In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Sushil had made the jump to the 66kg category. In the preliminary round of 16, Sushil lost to Ukraine’s Andriy Stadnik. However, Stadnik reached the final and Sushil, along with the other players, entered the repechage bronze medal playoff. His first challenge in the repechage round was USA’s Doug Schwab and he won 7-4. In the next round, Sushil defeated Albert Batyrov 7-4 to enter the bronze medal playoff. In the main clash, Sushil defeated Leonid Spiridonov to create history. Sushil became the first wrestler since KD Jadhav to win a medal in the Olympics after 56 years.
The situation was repeated in the 2012 London Olympics. Yogeshwar Dutt, featuring in the 60 kg freestyle category, started positively with a win over Bulgaria’s Anatolie Ilarionovitch. However, in his second round, he lost to world champion Besik Kudukhov. But, the Russian entered the final and Yogeshwar went to the repechage round.
Yogeshwar made a good start by defeating Franklin Gomez and Masoud Esmaeilpour. In the bronze medal playoff, Yogeshwar defeated North Korea’s Ri Jong Myong to become the second wrestler after Sushil to win the wrestling medal. London 2012 proved to be historic as Sushil and Yogeshwar secured silver and bronze.
2016 Rio completed the hat-trick for India. Sakshi entered the quarterfinal but she lost to Valeria Koblova. Luckily, Koblova entered the final and everyone whom she defeated entered the repechage. In the repechage round, she had to register two wins, one against an Asian champion for bronze. Sakshi beat Mongolia’s Purevdorjiin Orkhon but her win against Asian champion Aisuluu Tynybekova of Kyrgyzstan was special as she grabbed the bronze medal.
The repechage rule was simply magnificent for India and the athletes would be hoping that the repechage rule works well for them even in Tokyo 2020.
