SILVER LINING
‘The only respectful thing’ – Paris 2024 Olympics high jumper breaks silence after refusal to share gold medal backfires
Fans thought they'd see a repeat of the medal being shared as it was at Tokyo 2020
AN AMERICAN athlete has defended his decision not to share a gold at the Olympics.
Shelby McEwen, 28, was tied with New Zealand's Hamish Kerr at the end of the high-jump final.
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Many fans expected to see a repeat of Tokyo 2020, when Italian athlete Gianmarco Tamberi and Qatari athlete Mutaz Essa Barshim opted to share a gold after they tied in the high-jump final.
But both McEwen and Kerr wanted to win outright in Paris, and decided to opt for a jump-off instead of being crowned joint Olympic champions.
Unfortunately for McEwen, he lost the jump-off, meaning he returned to the US with a silver medal.
Speaking at a press conference after the event, McEwen said: "If it was meant to be it would’ve been.
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"Shout out to Hamish for coming up to me, accepting a jump off and I accepted it and I was all for it."
McEwen and Kerr cleared 2.36m, which sparked a jumpoff between the two Olympians for the top spot on the podium.
If two or more athletes end at the same height in the men’s high jump, they go to a jump off starting at the next height above where they cleared.
Both athletes missed at 2.38m and 2.36m before the bar was lowered to 2.34m.
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After they had both missed 11 jumps in a row, Kerr finally made 2.34m again and took the gold medal.
McEwen added: "I mean, hey, he got the gold and I got the silver. At the end of the day, like he said it’s a sport.
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"I mean I represent my country, just like he’s representing his. I’m representing my family just like he’s representing his.
“At the end of the day we all want to be champions and the only respectful thing to do is walk away with one champion.”
McEwen said the jump-off was Kerr's suggestion, which he agreed to.
He told : "He said it first, and I agreed to it. At some point, I kind of got fatigued. I maybe would have shared it with him, for sure. But I agreed to it, and it was all good.”
The US athlete says his full focus is now on going one better at the LA 2028 games in his home country.
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