“History, my friend.”
This is how Qatar’s Mutaz Barshim described the circumstance to his fellow Olympian Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi.
Their competition in the men’s high jump event was punctuated with a dramatic finish and their story shall be told on how sportsmanship looks like.
Officials and athletes at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics had to make a decision.
After a grueling series, two athletes were neck to neck for the gold finish. Both the then 30-year-old Barshim and 29-year-old Tamberi cleared the 2.37-meter jump or around 7 feet and eight inches.
It was then decided that both should try the 2.39-meter jump to finally determine who would take home the gold that year.
Both athletes couldn’t make the distance.
The two are faced with a situation where they would have to keep on jumping to break the tie. But before they could proceed and after meeting with an official, they both decided to take a different path.
Barshim was talking to the official when he asked “Can we have two golds?” The officials paused for a moment then nodded that it was possible. It was the only thing that they both needed to hear.
The athletes then decided to call off the match and accept that they are equally talented.
Barshim told Tamberi that they were making history and the Italian athlete can only do one thing to respond to that – he jumped on Barshim and enveloped him with a hug.
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The benches of the two nations erupted into cheers as they witnessed how athletes came together to celebrate their strengths. Tamberi then collapsed on the ground and cried.
The athletes both know they deserved the recognition.
“I look at him, he looks at me, and we know it,” Barshim said after the event, as quoted by TODAY. “We just look at each other and we know, that is it, it is done. There is no need.”
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He also explained that they’d been very close friends on and off the track. They worked together to realize their dreams to be the best, and in that year, they both became the best – together.
Their friendship started over ten years ago.
Both athletes met at the World Junior Championships in Moncton, New Brunswick in 2010.
Barshim emerged victorious in that meet while Tamberi didn’t qualify. It never hindered them to be friends, however.
They were so close that Tamberi even attended Barshim’s wedding in Sweden in 2018. And it makes their Olympic victory sweeter than their hardships.
What’s better than winning the gold medal?
Winning it with one of your closest friends, of course!
Their story is a testament to what these sporting events should look like.
It should be an event that bridges differences and exposes the best of the human spirit.
In an era where competition is not only done but encouraged, we always view other people as rivals when we all just want to succeed.
These two athletes could’ve decided which of them is the best. But in the end, they decided on a better path, and that is to make both of them winners.
Watch how these two athletes made history when they decided to take the gold together.
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