By deciding to share the height gold medal at the Tokyo Games in 2021, the Qatari Mutaz Essa Barshim and the Italian Gianmarco Tamberi made Olympic history but “it will never happen again”, believes Barshim in an interview to the AFP.
This Sunday, August 1, 2021 in Tokyo, at the end of a breathtaking height competition, where Barshim and Tamberi crossed each bar on the first try, the two men found themselves alone in passing 2.37 m. They then decide to leave it there.
“We turned around and there was no one there, it was emotional. So it was a draw. I asked if we could share. The answer was ‘yes, it’s possible’ and that’s it! We didn’t even talk. I looked at Gianmarco in the eyes, he looked at me, we hugged and the rest is history,” says Barshim.
This gold medal of sharing will affect the whole world in the midst of a pandemic. Barshim, now 32, says he is “lucky” to have shared the gold with his “friend” Tamberi, 31, because “we have been competing since 2010 and reached the professional level together”.
“I’m happy that it touched the hearts of so many people” but, “to be honest, it will never happen again. We will never share this moment again. It was unique.”
“We are athletes, professionals, we always want to be the best, we have this fire that drives us: ‘I want to beat you, you want to beat me’,” explains Barshim. Last summer, at the World Championships in Budapest, he obtained bronze with a bar of 2.33 m. Tamberi won by clearing 2.36 m.
Barshim also believes that the unprecedented – and controversial – decision of World Athletics, the International Athletics Federation, to pay bonuses (50,000 dollars or 47,000 euros) to the gold medalists of the 2024 Olympic Games, will not allow no more reliving what happened in Tokyo.
“Whether we offer 50 or 500, we won’t share, it’s not possible!”, he says in a joking tone. More seriously, “for athletes, it’s motivation. They work hard and this kind of bonus is very important. The amounts in athletics are not comparable to those in football or basketball. It’s a good start.”
Tamberi, “the friend” and standard bearer
Above all, the athlete recalls the uncertainty and constant threat that injuries pose to careers. “In 2018, I injured my left Achilles tendon, ruptured both ligaments. I went through a very dark time, mentally and physically. One moment you’re the best and a few moments later you’re walking out of the operating room. My friend Gianmarco suffered a similar injury in 2016, just before the Rio Games, which prevented him from participating.
In this Olympic year, Barshim began his outdoor season with a second place at the Xiamen Diamond League meeting and will line up in Suzhou on Saturday for the second Chinese leg of the elite circuit before Doha on May 10.
“I will then take a little rest and I hope to be at the top at the Games” in Paris (July 26-August 11), confides Barshim, also impatient to return to full stadiums after the closed session in Tokyo due to Covid. “I like the adrenaline caused by the crowd, the applause, the screams.”
Gianmarco Tamberi will also share these moments and will even be one of the two standard bearers of the Italian delegation at the opening ceremony on July 26.
