In the absence of stratospheric records, the Paris Games will be remembered for Paris and for the return of the Olympic movement to the people after being caged by the pandemic in Tokyo. Games with almost empty stands have been followed by Games with packed stadiums, legendary venues: the perfect absorption of a city by sport. That and, as always, a handful of happy and painful images, of wonderful moral debates, of glories and miseries. Let us dwell on one.
Athletes Mutaz Essa Barshim from Qatar and Gianmarco Tamberi from Italy both jumped 2.37 metres at the Tokyo 2021 Games, but were unable, after three attempts each, to jump 2.39. An Olympic official proposed a solution: two golds, two winners, two champions. Barshim couldn’t believe it: “Can we have two golds?” After confirming it, the two (especially the Italian) went crazy with joy. “I look at him, he looks at me and we know it. We just look at each other and we know, that’s it. He’s one of my best friends, not only on the track, but off the track. We work together. This is a dream come true. It’s the true spirit, the sportsmanship spirit, and we’re here transmitting this message,” said Barshim. It’s difficult (it’s foolish, come on) not to be happy for the two watching the video, not to show sympathy for the gesture, not to appreciate it and congratulate oneself on it. They promoted, recalled the Argentine newspaper The Nation These days, “empathy, understanding and mutual agreement.”
Paris 2024, history repeats itself. It is no longer the two of them. It is Hamish Kerr, a New Zealand athlete, and Shelby McEwen. They have jumped 2.36 metres. They attempt 2.38 metres and neither is able to do it in three attempts. They are both offered the win: two golds, two champions. Here the versions differ. A rounded story that prevailed in various media and on social networks was that McEwen refused to share the gold with his opponent, and lost. It is a false story, as McEwen himself clarified and other media corrected it. Hamish Kerr was the first to refuse the shared gold and McEwen, he said, was in complete agreement: both wanted the jump-off. And they jumped and jumped with already tired legs until one of them, Kerr, already in the jump-off and after the bar had been lowered twice, managed to jump 2.34 and break the tie. The two also agreed on something more prosaic: in addition to what their country would pay, this is the first time that World Athletics has paid 50,000 euros to the gold medallists in Paris. And there are families to feed, said McEwen. Incidentally, the Italian Gianmarco Tamberi, the last Olympic champion with his friend the Qatari Barshim, was the favourite but in the days leading up to the race he was devastated by colic.
What would Tamberi and Barshim have done if they had to split 50,000 euros? Does the Olympic spirit foster more sharing the victory or fighting for it until the end? Kerr went so far as to say that the decision to break the tie also had to do with not depriving the public and the audience of the competition until the end. The images of Kerr and McEwen jumping almost without strength, with their backs and legs increasingly damaged, fighting for only one to keep the victory, are less empathetic, less warm, less endearing than those of Tamberi and Barshim jumping for joy for both having two golds. They have the admiration of the exception, because if the same thing happened in every competition (two opponents, even two teams, fighting until the end without being able to break the tie, and both being awarded) absolutely everything would be corrupted. It is beautiful that everyone wins, but is it competition?
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