Evaluation of a new system of assigning quarterfinals in ski sprints

In World Cup competitions in ski sprints, a system of assigning quarter finals to the competitors after the qualification round has previously taken place in a way that has been considered unfair by many athletes and leaders. Competitors assigned a late quarterfinal do not receive as much recovery time as those competitors assigned an early quarterfinal. As a result quarter finalists from early quarterfinals are overrepresented among the medallists in the final.
At the end of the season 2014/2015 a new system was introduced, where the competitors choose their quarterfinal in a certain turn-taking sequence. The aim of the project is to investigate whether the competitors make rational choices in the sense that the undesirable quarterfinal effect from the former system is erased.