Wild card (sports)

A wild card (or wildcard, or wild-card) is, in general, a tournament or playoff berth awarded to an individual or team that has not qualified through normal play.

In international sports, the term is perhaps best known in reference to big international sporting events such as the Olympic Games and Wimbledon. Countries which fail to produce athletes who meet qualification standards are granted "wild cards", which allow them to enter competitors whose proven abilities are below the standard otherwise required. In some instances, wild cards are given to the host nation in order to boost its chances.

In Olympic and World Championship competitions in track and field and swimming, however, nations are automatically allowed to enter two competitors, so these instances are technically not wild cards. In some other Olympic sports, such as judo, archery, and badminton, wild cards are in use, and they are granted by the respective sport federations.

On rare occasions, a competitor who had gained entry by wild card succeeds in winning a medal or the championship. For example, Kye Sun-Hui won gold in judo at the 1996 Summer Olympics, Ding Junhui won the 2005 China Open snooker championship, Goran Ivanišević won the 2001 Wimbledon Championships, Kim Clijsters won the 2009 US Open, and Lin Dan won the 2013 BWF World Championships.

In North American professional sports leagues, "wild card" refers to a team that qualifies for the championship playoffs without winning their specific subdivision (usually called a conference or division) outright. The number of wild card teams varies. In most cases, the rules of the league call for the wild card team to survive an extra round or to play the majority of their postseason games away from home.

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