One moment, Audrey Werro was charging toward another European final. The next, she was flat on the track… and somehow still heading to the medal race.
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The Swiss star’s dramatic fall during the women’s 800m semifinal at the European Championships sparked an immediate debate among fans, with many questioning the decision to advance her to Friday’s final. Werro had been leading when her right foot appeared to be clipped by French runner Anais Bourgoin, sending her crashing to the ground on the final bend.
The impact also caught Lithuania’s Gabija Galvydyte, who fell while trying to avoid the incident. Both eventually got back up and finished, but Werro crossed the line last in a heavily delayed 2:35.35, clutching her ribs as she made her way through the finish.
And that was when the drama really began…
Rather than seeing her championship end there, officials accepted Werro’s appeal and advanced both her and Galvydyte to the final. The decision expanded the medal race to 10 athletes… and left fans divided over whether the ruling was fair.
One of the fans questioned the decision, saying, “Why? There was no contact from anyone else.”
For Werro, however, there was little hesitation about finishing the race. “I was feeling really great until the last meter. Unfortunately, I don’t know, something happened, and I was on the ground,” she told the BBC.
The 22-year-old later explained why she kept running despite the fall. She knew crossing the finish line could give her an opportunity to appeal if the incident was found to have been caused by another athlete.
“This is the reason why I finished the race,” Werro said. “It’s always important to go until the end.”
However, reacting to this incident, another fan wrote under an X post from Track & Field Gazette, “Ridiculous. She shouldn’t have been advanced.”
The ruling came after footage appeared to show Bourgoin’s left hand making contact with Werro’s right foot. That gave officials grounds to reinstate the Swiss runner, who had entered the championships as arguably the biggest threat to Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson.
“Why bother even having semis? She fell because of her own error. She should not be in the final,” wrote a few others.
For some, the decision looked like officials were bending the rules to protect one of the championship favorites. A few others argued that Werro had clearly been impeded and deserved the opportunity to compete after an incident that was not of her making. Either way, the decision has turned what should have been a straightforward semifinal into one of the talking points of the championships.
Another one took a subtle jibe at the athlete, saying, “Audrey just lost a lot of fans, if I was her manager, I wouldn’t let her race in the final.”
But if we take a look back, Werro arrived in Birmingham with the fastest 800m time in the world this year. Her stunning 1:53.80 in Paris made her the third-fastest woman in history and put her within touching distance of Jarmila Kratochvilova’s 1:53.28 world record.
Keely Hodgkinson, meanwhile, eased through her own semifinal in 1:57.38, with Femke Bol finishing just behind her. But the Olympic champion also admitted she was concerned when she heard the crowd react to Werro’s fall.
“I heard a ‘oohhh’, which is never a good sign,” Hodgkinson said. “It’s a real shame, I hope she’s okay and that she’s in the final tomorrow.”
Despite receiving some support from her fellow athletes, some of the fans kept fuming, “That’s so wrong, just fell over her own feet.” Most of the other comments echoed the same sentiment.
Femke Broeders-Bol also saw the incident and admitted it made her more cautious in her own race. Now, after surviving a semifinal that appeared to have ended her medal hopes, Werro gets another shot.
And perhaps that is what has made the controversy so compelling: the athlete who looked certain to be out is now walking into a final featuring two of her biggest rivals. Hodgkinson summed up what everyone will be hoping for next.
“I hope for a clean race with no falling over.”
After all the controversy, there’s only one way for Werro to silence the noise now… let her legs do the talking when the final begins.