Team USA’s Freddie Crittenden was happy to come last in a 110m hurdles heat as he was labelled as a genius for taking advantage of a long-forgotten rule by viewers on social media.

DETAILS OF WHAT HAPPENED

The 29-year-old Olympic debutant was five seconds behind the winner of Sunday’s race — fellow American, Grant Holloway — despite arriving in Paris as the second-fastest 110m hurdler in the world this year.

He later revealed that he was ‘slightly injured’ with an ‘aggravated muscle’ in his leg while racing and that he knew a sub-par performance would end his chances of qualifying for the semi-finals, except for a controversial rule providing second chances.

In hurdles, the top three finishers of a first-round race go through along with the next-three fastest contestants. 

But, those who flop also get a chance to redeem themselves by competing in the ‘repechage round,’ which Crittenden aims to exploit. 

He now eyes a 48-hour recovery to be healthy to race on Tuesday.

WHY HE FINISHED LAST

After his performance on Sunday, Crittenden said of he decision to finish last: ‘So, it was an intentional choice. It was either get top three or everyone gets through to the repechage. Every athlete has a chance to race in repechage.

‘So I decided to just not make an emotional choice, make a smart choice. 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.’ 

Fans were torn over the Missouri native’s plan to qualify, as one person called it a ‘1000 IQ move’ on X, while another wrote that Crittenden ‘should be disqualified for breaching the spirit of the Games & not racing.’