High jumper Shelby McEwen has spoken out after causing a stir at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The contentious incident occurred when American McEwen and New Zealand’s Hamish Kerr were the last men standing in the men’s high jump.
Both athletes had cleared 2.36 metres, but instead of splitting the top podium and taking home a share of the gold medal, they decided to go to a jump-off for sole first place status.
Fans initially thought it was just McEwen’s decision to go for the outright gold instead of splitting it.
“How crazy do you have to be to be given the chance to share the gold medal and deciding you want to go to a jump-off instead?!” one fan posted.
“Unless you REALLY hate your opponent, why would you ever go to a ‘jump-off’ instead of sharing gold?”
“He wanted to be Olympic champion, not joint Olympic champion,’ one fan added. ‘I respect it.”
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.
In sudden death, both men missed 2.36 metres to add yet drama, before Kerr was able to eventually clear 2.34 meters and secure the gold medal ahead of McEwen.
However, unbeknownst to most fans, it wasn’t just McEwen who wanted the jump-off.
Kerr also agreed to it, later saying, “We both just nodded and off we went.”
In the end, McEwen claimed silver and defended his decision to share the Olympic gold, reiterating that it was a joint process.
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“If it was meant to be it would’ve been,” he told reporters at a press conference after the event.
“Shout out to Hamish for coming up to me, accepting a jump off and I accepted it and I was all for it.”
Explaining the decision making process in more detail, he added, “He [Kerr] was like, ‘Let’s jumpoff.’ I was like, ‘I’m all for it’. 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.”
“At the end of the day, he wanted to jumpoff,” McEwen added. “At that point, I wasn’t going to go back and forth with it and argue with him. He wanted to jumpoff, and I was all in for it.”
He also admitted that having to share the $50,000 prize for gold medalists was a factor in going for the lone gold.
“Most definitely,” McEwen said. “I got a family to feed.”
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Sharing the medal isn’t completely unheard of in the Olympics, especially in the high jump.
Qatar’s Mutaz Barshim and Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy decided to split first place and win gold at the Tokyo Games.
Barshim and Tamberi both cleared 2.37 meters at the 2021 Summer Games. They then spoke to an Olympic official who confirmed they could split the medal which sparked wild scenes as they celebrated jubilantly together.
It’s most certainly a rarity though, with Barsham saying earlier this year that he didn’t think it would happen again.
He said: “To be honest, it will never happen again. That moment, we’ll never share that again.
“It was a one-time thing. Coming back from injuries and a dark place, I wanted to do something different, something with a different meaning.”