Shared gold is old; Kiwi Hamish Kerr and American Shelby McEwen choose jump-off to decide winner, as Kerr tops

‘To hell with sharing the gold medal’, these are not the exact words said but rather the sentiment when two men were tied at the same height after both had failed to jump any higher.

New Zealand’s Hamish Kerr didn’t want the men’s high jump final to end up becoming another feel-good moment of the Olympic Games. Kerr is said to have told USA’s Shelby McEwen that he was prepared to fight it off in a jump-off. McEwen, without batting an eyelid, agreed. There would be just one winner. Ultimately it was Kerr.

The New Zealander and the American were going off script at the Stade de France on Saturday night.

High jumpers Gianmarco Tamberi and Mutaz Barshim at the Tokyo Olympics and pole vaulters Katie Moon and Nina Kennedy at last year’s World Championships were happy to share the gold medal.

Hamish Kerr won the men’s high jump gold in a jump-off at the Paris Olympics. However, the most fascinating moment wasn’t the jump-off itself but what happened before and after Kerr’s victory.

The other high jumpers stayed on to watch as McEwen and Kerr battled for the top… pic.twitter.com/nZLuaN2cLz

— MxM (@Mukurima) August 11, 2024

“Can we have two gold?” Barshim had asked and an official nodded. Ankle injuries had almost ended the careers of Barshim and Tamberi, so when they both knew they could touch gold, the good friends were on the same page.

Moon hit back at critics saying she and Kennedy would have been foolish to risk injury because of fatigue. “Contrary to popular belief, you do not need a ‘win at all cost’ mindset to have a champion’s mentality,” Moon had said.

Kerr, once a track runner, and McEwen, a former winner of a basketball dunk competition, were not going to let go of a golden opportunity to be a solo Olympic champion.

Final with high stakes

High-stakes were at play when Kerr and McEwen went for the jump-off. For the first time World Athletics was offering $50,000 for every gold medal winner. If they had split the gold, they could have also shared the pot. “I got a family to feed,” McEwen said after the final when asked if he had entertained thoughts of pocketing $25,000.

There was a lot riding on the high jump gold for the USA as well as for New Zealand.

The Paris Games are now New Zealand’s most successful ever. Kerr’s gold was the ninth for the country, one better than eight won at Los Angeles in 1984.

Post the final, the narrative the misinformed trolls bought into was that McEwen had thrown away the medal that mattered for USA, currently one behind China in the gold count on the medal tally, by challenging Kerr to a jump-off.

Actually, Kerr didn’t leave McEwen with an option.

McEwen narrated the sequence of events once those, for and against a jump off, had their say.

“He (Kerr) said he wanted to face off, and I was all for it. We faced off until the last battle and he came out on top, so salute, congratulations to him. I know I will be back, stronger and fit, better than ever,” McEwen was quoted as saying by World Athletics.

Both Kerr and McEwen had cleared 2.36 metres in their first attempts, but had three failures at 2.38m. In the jump-off both botched their one and only attempt at 2.38 metres and also at 2.36 metres before Kerr soared over 2.34 and McEwen dropped the bar.

The on-air commentator was happy that no javelin throwers were in action as Kerr took off for a celebratory run into the middle of the field.

Creating a legacy

Later at a joint press conference with Barshim and McEwen, Kerr spoke about the motivation behind creating a different high jump legacy to what was seen in Tokyo.

Kerr said the jump-off was for those who wanted to see a fight to the finish between Barshim and Tamberi but left unsatisfied three years ago in Tokyo.

“I always talked about how amazing the jump-off was last time (in Tokyo). That has such a special place in history for high jumps. For me also to have an exact same scenario this time around, but to choose to do the jump-off, was putting at peace those people who wanted to jump-off, so we’re both really happy to add to that history,” Kerr said.

“If anything, I’m more fatigued from running onto the field than I am from the actual jumping, but I was just so happy that I’d won.”

The day didn’t belong to the two superstars of this era. Barshim, a modern great, and Tamberi, were out of gold-medal reckoning. Barshim finished third, he now has the full set of medals with a gold and two silvers from previous Summer Games. Barshim was far from his best in an injury-ridden season.

Tamberi’s Olympics started with him losing his wedding ring during the opening ceremony on the Seine. Kidney pain, fever and hospitalization made matters worse this week, he bowed out at 2.22 metres.

Three years ago the Qatari and the Italian had created a lasting legacy of their own and now they watched two others do the same. When asked about a second-place scenario, Kerr said ‘would have been prouder of a silver than a split gold’. McEwen concurred. Two men didn’t want to share gold this time and another glorious chapter in the men’s high jump final was written.

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