Paris 2024: Mutaz Barshim Loses Olympic Gold Defense In Men's High Jump

Mutaz Barshim is no longer the Olympic Men's Higher Jump champion even as it might have been expected of him to defend the title at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Being a joint gold medallist with Italain athlete, Gianmarco Tamberi from Tokyo 2020 Games, and as the first Qatari athlete to attain the feat, he was amongst the favourites for the top medal in Paris. Unfortunately, neither him nor Tamberi did. 

New Zealander, Hamish Kerr is now the new men's high jump Olympic champion and Barshim has dropped to a bronze medalist for failing to clear 2.34m jump. Tamberi was no where near the podium for finishing in 11th position. For the silver medal was American Shelby McEwen. 

Meanwhile, Hamish and McEven were initially meant to agree on split gold medal but both the latter wanted jump-off for an outright champion. After many failed attempts, the bar was lowered to 2.36m, and while McEven dropped the bar, Kerr cleared it for the gold medal. 

The rivalry between Kerr and McEven did not begin at the Paris Olympics. Ahead of the Games, both jumpers competed at the World Athletics Indoor Championship in Glasgow, Scotland. Kerr emerged as the champion for winning the gold while the American won silver. Thus, it was understandable that McEven demanded for jump-off. 

Besides clearing 2.36m at the Olympics, Kerr cleared the same height at World Indoor to beat McEven. Evidently, Barshim was outperformed and missed out on defending his Olympic title. Even at that, he is yet the only Qatari high jumper to win to Olympic medals at the event.