It's really worth it now in this moment.” But we are here today sharing this moment and all the sacrifices. It's been five years that I have been waiting, with injuries and a lot of setbacks. "It is amazing, this is a dream I don't want to wake up from,” said Barshim, who competed just four times this season with just a modest 2.30m season’s best to his credit. “I was told in 2016 just before Rio there was a risk I wouldn't be able to compete any more. I dreamed of this so many times,” said Tamberi, who was also one of the first to congratulate 100m champion Marcell Jacobs, whose shock victory capped one of the finest evenings in Italian athletics history.
“After my injuries I just wanted to come back, but now I have this gold, it's incredible. Those career-threatening injuries seemed part a distant past when the pair took to the stage today, a distance made even farther when the global coronavirus pandemic postponed the Olympic Games, giving each a crucial extra year to find their previous form. Tamberi too was sidelined from competition for 11 months, but with a more gradual return to the event's upper echelon. In July of 2018, Barshim tore ankle ligaments while attempting to break the world record with a leap at 2.46 in Szekesfehervar, Hungary.īarshim didn't jump for the next 11 months but worked his way back into contention to successfully defend his world title before a delighted home crowd in Doha. The medal and title of Olympic champion would be shared – just like the similar roads that brought two of the finest high jumpers of their generation to this historic moment at a one-of-a-kind Olympic Games at Tokyo’s National Stadium.įive years ago, Tamberi, a 2.39m jumper, tore a ligament in his left ankle when attempting to top 2.41m at the Monaco Diamond League meeting just three weeks before the Rio Games where he would have started as one of the favourites. The finest high jump duel in Olympic history ended in the most appropriate way imaginable: with Mutaz Barshim and Gianmarco Tamberi sharing the gold medal in Tokyo.īarshim, the two-time defending world champion and Tamberi, the 2016 world indoor champion and reigning European champion indoors, sailed through the competition on Sunday (1) without a miss through to 2.37m, Barshim over six heights and Tamberi seven.Īfter each missed three times at 2.39m, they met briefly with an official, and decided there would be no need for a jump off.
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