In various sports, a countback is used to break ties.
Field events
High jump and pole vault
World Athletics
World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...
, the international governing body for athletics, uses the following criteria to break ties (rule 26.8 in the 2020 edition of the World Athletics competition and technical rules):
1. Fewest misses at the tie height cleared
2. Fewest misses throughout the competition (passes are not counted)
3. If the competitors are not tied for first place, a tie is declared. For first place, a jump-off may be run. However, the competitors have the option to not jump any more, either before or during the jump-off, in which case they would remain tied. This occurred in the
men's high jump at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
Mutaz Essa Barshim
Mutaz Essa Barshim ( ar, معتز عيسى برشم, Muʿtazz ʿĪsā Baršim; born 24 June 1991) is a Qatari track and field athlete who competes in the high jump and is the current Olympic Champion (2020). He is also the current World Champio ...
and
Gianmarco Tamberi
Gianmarco Tamberi (born 1 June 1992) is an Italian high jumper, current Olympic champion (2020 Summer Olympics) and World indoor champion (2016).
He won the 2021 Diamond League crown, becoming the first ever Italian to do so, and repeated this ...
both cleared 2.37 m without a single miss in the event and both failed to clear 2.39. Rather than go to a jump-off, Barshim asked, "Can we have two golds?" Both were declared Olympic champions.
Other field events
Per rule 25.22 of the 2020 edition of the World Athletics competition and technical rules, the second-best result is used to determine placements. If the competitors are still tied, then the third-best is checked, and so on. If the tie is still not broken after all results are compared, a tie is declared.
In the
men's long jump at the 2020 Summer Olympics,
Miltiadis Tentoglou
Miltiadis "Miltos" Tentoglou ( el, Μιλτιάδης Τεντόγλου ; born 18 March 1998) is a Greek long jumper. He won the gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. In 2022, Tentoglou became the World Indoor champion jumping the current Gr ...
and
Juan Miguel Echevarría
Juan Miguel Echevarría Laflé (born 11 August 1998) is a Cuban athlete specialising in the long jump. He represented his country at the 2017 World Championships, narrowly missing the final. He later won a gold medal at the 2018 World Indoor Ch ...
both reached 8.41 m, but Tentoglou was awarded the gold medal because his second-best result was 8.15, to Echevarría's 8.09.
Boxing
Golf
Olympic shooting events
References
{{reflist
Sports rules and regulations