USA star conceded team place to Olympics rival after dead heat saw one-on-one tiebreaker proposed

The 2025 World Athletics Championships will bring drama to Tokyo for the conclusion of an exciting season of track and field.

Toyko 25, which takes place from September 13-21, will mark the first time the biennial showpiece has wrapped the outdoor season, and brings a host of intriguing storylines to Japan.

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US star Noah Lyles will defend his titles in both the 100m and the 200m events, and reigning world champion Sha’Carri Richardson is set to battle Olympic gold medalist Julien Alfred and the rest of the women’s 100m field.

Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the third-fastest woman alive, waves goodbye to competition having decided to return for one final season in 2025, and will want to go out on a high having won seven major titles across her decorated career.

In short, there will be an abundance of action, in both the men’s and women’s competitions.

But while the season-ending event is must-watch, it’s unlikely to surpass the drama that followed the infamous US Olympic trials of 13 years ago.

Olympic training partners finish in dead heat

Back in June 2012, as London was gearing up to host the Summer Olympics for the first time since 1948, eight American sprinters were locked in battle in Eugene, Oregon.

Carmelita Jeter, Tianna Madison, Allyson Felix, Jeneba Tarmoh, Bianca Knight, Lauryn Williams, English Gardner and Alexandria Anderson contested the final of the women’s 100m at the Olympic Team Trials on June 23.

It should have been pretty straightforward — the top three finishers would go to the Olympics, and the others would go home.

Jeter stormed across the line first, followed by Madison, as they booked their seats on the plane to London.

But from there, things got complicated. Tarmoh and Felix had finished in a dead heat for third.

The US trials photo finish seen around the world

Initially, it was Tarmoh who had initially been declared the third-place finisher, immediately after the race.

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She even joined Jeter and Madison in the media mixed zone to talk excitedly about having made the Olympic team.

Felix, already an accomplished 200m and 400m star, was in despair, telling reporters that finishing in fourth was the ‘worst’ possible outcome.

But an hour later, her despair turned to disbelief, as a spokesperson for USA Track and Field announced that Tarmoh and Felix had actually finished in a dead heat for third place.

The decision was reached after officials reviewed images of the photo finish, and even despite using multiple camera angles, they were unable to determine which runner had crossed the line first.

Both were officially listed as having run a time of 11.068 seconds, and a tiebreaker was needed, as there were only three spots on the Olympic team.

That posed a major problem, though, as USA Track & Field (USATF) had no tiebreaker procedures in place at the time in the event of a tie for the final spot.

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US officials scramble to create 100m tiebreak

Controversy in the 100m finals overshadowed the entire US Olympic Trials, because USATF had no way to deal with the dead heat.

A tie-breaking procedure indeed existed for preliminary events, but officials could not find one for races deciding Olympic berths.

In the hours that followed, an ad-hoc committee quickly conjured up an 800-word document detailing new protocols, which gave Tarmoh and Felix two options: Flip a coin, or face each other again in a one-on-one race.

The runners agreed to race again, and the battle was scheduled for the afternoon of Monday, June 24 — two days after their initial meet.

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But the story soon took another twist.

Tarmoh concedes spot to Felix

Hours before the pair were due to race again, Tarmoh announced that she would withdraw from the contest, and gave up her position on the Olympic team to Felix.

Through a statement from her agent, she told USATF: “I understand that with this decision I am no longer running the 100-meter dash in the Olympic Games and will be an alternate for the event.”

Her decision to pull out of the runoff was met with disappointment from USATF President Stephanie Hightower, who noted that ‘we all worked hard to reach a consensus on the tiebreaker.’

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The race was also scheduled to be shown in prime time on NBC in conjunction with coverage of the swimming trials, and would have generated the significant kind of interest that US track and field desperately needed at the time.

But as Tarmoh pulled out, Felix went to the Olympics without ever breaking the tie.

How did Felix and Tarmoh perform at London 2012?

In London, Felix competed in the 100m and 200m races, while Tarmoh traveled as a reserve on the US team.

The latter did see the track, and ran the second leg of the women’s 4×100m relay in the qualifying round.

Although she didn’t compete in the finals, Tarmoh received a gold medal as the USA set a world record in winning the finals.

Felix, meanwhile, came fifth in the 100m final, and won gold in the 200m.

She ran the second leg of the world record-setting 4×100m relay to cap an impressive games — even if her qualification was infamous.