The biggest dream of any athlete in the world is to win an Olympic gold medal. However, in one of the rarest moments in the Olympics history, a gold medal was shared among two athletes Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshim and Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi. It happened after 109 years. The last time it happened was way back in 1912 at Stockholm Olympics.
Winning a gold medal is the greatest level of achievement in the sport. However, Qatar’s athlete Mutaz Essa Barshim went one step ahead. He has won Olympic gold, the Medal of Humanity, and also the hearts of billions of sports fans all around the world. Mutaz Essa Barshim also got the gold for Italy’s Gianmarco Tambri, who was injured during the final.
This Is How It Became Possible
It happened during the Tokyo Olympics of men’s high jump event. Both Barshim and Tambri jumped 2.37 meters to finish first together. There were no-fail attempts until they attempted to clear 2.39 meters. After this, the event officials asked both of them to make three more jumps each. Neither athlete could go above 2.37 meters in these three jumps. After three failures each at that height, an Olympic official first offered them a jump-off to decide the winner.
“Can we have two golds?”, Barshim asked the official.
The official nodded, and the two athletes clasped hands and whooped for joy.
“I look at him, he looks at me, and we know it. We just look at each other and we know, that is it, it is done. There is no need,” Barshim said.
Mutaz Essa Barshim has won all the different colors of Olympic medals. He has won the Bronze in the 2012 Olympics and Silver in the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Lovely Friendship Between Barshim-Tamberi
When Tamberi returned to competitive jumping following his injury in 2017, nothing was going well for him. He locked himself in his room after yet another dismal performance in a tournament when someone began to bang on the door repeatedly. It had to be Barshim. Mutaz began knocking on my door and refused to leave.
At first, all I wanted was for him to leave. He persisted, yelling, “Gimbo, Gimbo, I’d like to talk to you.” So I gave in and let him in,” Tamberi wrote in January 2018 on spikes.worldathletics.org. “They both had a conversation. In front of him, Tamberi cried. He tried to reassure him by telling him what he had to say. He kept asking Tamberi not to rush things. Barshim kept telling him that even after having a major injury, he had already returned to the Diamond League. No one could have predicted that. But now is the time to take it easy and not put too much pressure on yourself. The most essential lesson his dad taught him was that I had to do it for myself, not for the sake of others. In Budapest, a successful competition ensued.
According to Tamberi, “Something inside of me changed, and I began to live again. I was a high jumper once more.” This win was emotional for Tamberi as he had previously missed Rio Olympics due to injury. He was quoted by AFP:
“After my injuries, I just wanted to come back, but now I have this gold, it’s incredible. I dreamed of this so many times. I was told in 2016, just before Rio, there was a risk I wouldn’t be able to compete anymore. It’s been a long journey.”
It was one of the best and rare Olympic moments you will see. Congratulations to both Mutaz Essa Barshim and Gianmarco Tamberi.
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