After witnessing a gold medal tie in the event in Tokyo, the 27-year-old chose to not let history repeat itself, opting instead for a winner-take-all jump-off.
SAINT-DENIS, France — A few months ago, Hamish Kerr started thinking about jump-offs. He had watched from just a few feet away as Mutaz Essa Barshim, of Qatar, and Gianmarco Tamberi, of Italy, decided to share gold in the men’s high jump at the Tokyo Olympics rather than continuing to compete, and Kerr thought it was “such a special moment for the sport,” he said. But earlier this year, a fellow member of Team New Zealand asked him what he would do in their spot.
It’s one thing to say that when you are shooting the breeze with your teammates. It’s something else entirely, when you and American Shelby McEwen have each cleared 2.36 meters and have each failed to clear 2.38, to stare down an International Olympic Committee official who is offering you an Olympic gold medal and say, “No thanks. I’d rather take a 50% chance at silver.”
Well, McEwen was a bit more willing to consider alternatives, he admitted afterward. “At some point, I kind of got fatigued,” he said with a smile. “I might have shared it with him. But I agreed to it and it was all good.” He added, “I wasn’t gonna go back and forth and argue with them or talk to him. He just wanted to jump off and I was all in for it.”
They each missed again at 2.38, then at 2.36. Two hours after they’d begun—and after a pause to watch the wild men’s 4 x 400-meter relay—McEwen missed at 2.34. And to the relief of the nearly 77,000 at the Stade de France who might have begun to wonder if anyone would ever clear the bar again, Kerr sailed over it. He flopped on his back, then, as the crowd roared, immediately bounced up and sprinted into the center of the track.
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