Hamish Kerr wins dramatic high jump gold medal after sudden death round | Paris 2024 Olympic Games

This time, no one wanted to share the gold. Three years after Mutaz Barshim and Gianmarco Tamberi decided to go 50-50 for first place in the men’s high jump at the Tokyo Games instead of the jump-off, two of their competitors found themselves in the same situation but decided to settle things the old-fashioned way.

USA’s Shelby McEwen and New Zealand’s Hamish Kerr were tied for first place after both failed three attempts to clear 2.38m. “You may recognise this situation,” the man operating the stadium’s PA said to the crowd, “what are they going to do this time?” Kerr and McEwen didn’t even stop to talk about it. The kumbaya spirit of the Covid-era competition has long since faded and both men wanted to push on to the sudden-death round.

It turned out to be a slow, sudden event. Kerr and McEwen both have personal bests of 2.36m, but with the gold medal on the line, they seemed to fall apart. Neither came close to clearing 2.38m. So the officials lowered the bar to 2.36m. Neither could make it, so it was back to 2.34m. The event was now so long that they tried to squeeze their jumps in between laps of the men’s 4x400m relay, which was the penultimate event on the track. McEwen decided to try his hand at 2.34m, with the eight 400m runners quickly closing in on him around the bend.

McEwen missed, which is not surprising given the circumstances. Kerr wisely waited until the relay was over, cleared the height with ease and immediately launched into a mad dash across the grass to the center of the stadium, where he stood with his arms wide open and soaked up the applause of the 70,000 people in the crowd. Kerr, nicknamed the Flying Kiwi, had proven himself to be the best jumper on the court, but it has to be said that the bar was set pretty low at that point. McEwen, who until tonight was best known for winning a trophy for a spectacular dunk from the free-throw line while playing high school basketball, won a silver medal to put on his shelf next to it.

Barshim, who already had a full set of Olympic medals, won the bronze. Normally he can clear 2.34m by getting out of bed in the morning, but this season he has struggled with injuries and has been far from his best form. He eventually risked his chances of a second gold medal with a single attempt at 2.38m after failing twice at 2.36m, but the bet backfired.

His big buddy Tamberi was there too, and had an even harder time. He had a hellish fortnight here in Paris. Things started to go wrong when he threw his wedding ring into the Seine during the opening ceremony, a mistake he managed to turn around with an irresistibly charming public apology to his wife. “If I really had to lose him, I can’t think of a better place. He will remain forever in the riverbed of the City of Love,” he said. Tamberi speculated that it was an omen. If so, it was not a good omen. A week later he was struck by kidney pain.

He spent the mid-weekend of the Games in the emergency room of his local hospital, undergoing CT scans, ultrasounds and blood tests. Three days later, he was in bed with a fever of 38.8 degrees. He made it through qualifying on Wednesday, but spent the entire night of Friday in excruciating pain and was readmitted to hospital on Saturday morning after vomiting blood. Even after all that, he made it to the Stade de France for the 7pm start of the final.

He didn’t win the medal he wanted. But you’ve rarely seen someone fail so gracefully. Tamberi came onto the court wearing a hood, which he threw off before throwing his arms wide, beating his chest, screaming and punching the air a few times. His first two attempts at his opening height of 2.22m failed, so he turned to the crowd and led the entire stadium in a slow clap for his third attempt. He did it and was rewarded with a roar about as loud as any he’d had all night. He failed twice more at his next height, and this time he prepared for his third attempt by falling to his knees and praying.

It did not help him, and a moment later he burst into tears, after which his wife hugged him comfortingly.