Posted on 08/01/2021 3:59:16 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Olympic high jumpers — and best friends — Mutaz Essa Barshim and Gianmarco Tamberi convinced Games officials to let them share gold on Sunday instead of jumping to decide the winner.
Both Barshim, 30, and Tamberi, 29, had cleared jumps of 2.37 meters, then failed to clear the 2.39 meter hurdle three times each. But Barshim resisted when an Olympic officials offered him to “jump-off” against his Italian competitor.
“Can we have two golds?” the Qatari asked the official — who nodded approvingly, causing the self-described “best friends” to clasp hands and whoop for joy.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
My beef has nothing to do with sportsmanship. This goes much deeper than what is on the surface. Now I am moving on.
This article is slightly misleading. This option was already in the rulebook for first place competitors that were absolutely equal up until the failed height. They didn’t really have to convince the officials of anything. Considering their poor English, their question is probably better understood as them making sure that they could actually choose the first place sharing option at this event.
There’s LOTS of ties in competition. This is one of those uniquely American hangups. The rest of the world, including the international sports bodies that make a lot of the rules Olympic games happen under, get that sometimes the situation just doesn’t warrant some sort of death match stupidity. There’s a schedule to keep, their performance was equal, celebrate good sportsmanship and move on.
I totally agree with you. This may be the one redeeming moment of this entire Olympiad.
“I think this is a cool thing! They both competed and basically had a tie…I believe it shows true sportsmanship.”
Agreed.
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