Doha
So comedian-actor Kevin Hart on a talk show asks Tokyo Olympics high jump champions Mutaz Essa Barshim and Gianmarco Tamberi if they really can say ‘I am the best’ since they decided to share the gold.
The Qatari star replies, “We say, ‘we the best’.”
Hart’s co-host on the programme, rapper Snoop Dogg, funnily quips, “So who do you think you are? DJ Khaled international version?” referring to the American record producer’s music label.
Barshim leans in, channels his own flamboyant rapper swag, brings up his Tokyo gold medal into the view, and replies, “Another one!” As the Gen Z would say it, ‘burn!’
“I literally have been all over, and I am trying to do as much as possible,” Barshim tells Gulf Times at a homecoming celebration at a city hotel earlier this week. “I have had a lot of requests, even overseas, international news. I have been literally sitting in front of my laptop for hours doing Zoom calls over Zoom calls over Zoom calls. So yeah, it has been hectic.”
For someone who shared his glory with a rival and friend Tamberi on August 1, after both were tied at 2.37m, Barshim looks forward to making everyone part of his celebrations.
As well-wishers gather around him, each vying for his attention, his time, he obliges them all, with pictures, conversations and letting them hold his gold medal.
“These days the most important thing is the realisation that I am not just jumping for myself. There is a dedicated team working 24/7 leaving their families behind, me leaving my family behind, my nine-month old son, it’s bigger than just competing,” the 30-year-old says.
“There are sacrifices of so many people that I really want to give them that win.
“His Highness (the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani) called me directly, and he has done that most of the times in the past too. But even His Highness the Father Amir Sheikh Hamad (bin Khalifa al-Thani), he was the first person to call me actually, directly in the field, and he was so happy, and he told me ‘Congratulations, it was amazing, made it better by sharing it with your friends, that’s true sportsmanship’.
“I appreciate every celebration, every reaction that I have received.”
Over the course of the last 10 days since the victory, as fans and non-fans are equal parts baffled and pleasantly surprised, Barshim’s stoic responses about the why behind one of the most memorable moments in sports history have been full of sportsmanship, maturity and compassion.
“The strongest high jump competition in history. And one has to look at what me and Tamberi had been through, similar injuries that could have ended our careers. Coming back from that and to jump to the top of the world and beat everyone else, I would have hated to see him in a silver position, and I would have hated myself to be in a silver position,” he says.
So would Barshim of 2012 have done the same thing in that situation?
“I really don’t know. Not for a lower height for sure. This time we were jumping world lead, after all that we have been through. But I guess, we will never know,” he says, lingering a bit longer in his thoughts about the situation.
Though one thing he is absolutely sure of is his growth as an athlete since then. “I was a new face, no one really knew me, not many people outside of high jump at least. There were no expectations. If I make it to the final, people will clap, ‘oh wow, you made it to the final’.
“In 2016 (Rio Games), I was a developed athlete, I was among the best, I was a contender and there were expectations that I would be on the podium. I jumped silver, and I was happy about that.
“2020, me, I am a different person, the experience that I have had over the years, the mistakes I made in 2012, 2016, I tried avoiding all of that. In fact, I don’t think I am physically better than I was in 2016, but mentally my experience is much better.”
And the celebrations after? “It was crazy on the flight back home,” he says. “The celebrations, we couldn’t believe it. We were out there having fun. I have been flying a lot since the age of 15, but that one flight is my favourite ever.”
The comforts of home brought the much-craved slowness to the whirlwind of the past few days.
“I went home and I celebrated with my mom. She was crying out of joy, she hadn’t seen me in long, but she was happy. That was everything to me,” he says.
The two-time world champion, former Asian champion, former Diamond League winner, has spoken about encapsulating his inspiring life in a book in the past, and he has. But the new high jump Olympic champion has had to push the release back to be able to add the Tokyo chapter of a glorious career that has no ends in sight just yet.
Name of the book, yet? “The title, and the cover. I think that’s the last thing I am going to do,” he says.
Any suggestions?
Qatar's gold medalist Mutaz Essa Barshim celebrates on the track following the Men's High Jump Final during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo on August 1, 2021. (AFP)
