Tokyo Olympics - Sharing 🥇 medal

[weisan]

https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/202...d-olympic-gold

"The world watched in awe as Qatar’s Mutaz Barshim and Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi decided in a matter of moments to share an Olympic gold in the men’s high jump at the Tokyo Games on Sunday."
Both high jumpers were perfect until the bar was set to the Olympic-record height of 2.39m (seven feet, 10 inches).
Each missed three times then instead of going to a jump-off, they decided to share the gold.

“I know for a fact that for the performance I did, I deserve that gold. He did the same thing, so I know he deserved that gold,” Barshim said. “This is beyond sport. This is the message we deliver to the young generation.”

After they decided, Tamberi slapped Barshim’s hand and jumped to hug him.

“Sharing with a friend is even more beautiful,” Tamberi said. “It was just magical.”

[Chris]

That’s great

[bikerboy337]

This was awesome to watch... i didn't know what happened but after the mens 100m final, they were both on the track and congratulating the runners, then a little while later i saw the story... great to see and watch... they awarded 2 golds and a bronze...

[bronk]

Best Olympic moment so far imo.

[verticaldoug]

https://www.nbcolympics.com/news/usa...mens-800m-heat

I thought the best moment was when Jewett and Amos tangled legs in the 800m semi's and fell to the track. Both were medal contenders. They stood up, shook hands, and hugged.

That is harder to do than sharing a gold medal and being happy.

[Blue Jays]

Perhaps award two silvers, one bronze, and no gold to encourage striving?
Holding a jump-off would reveal who could persevere to jump the highest.

[harlond]

Originally Posted by Blue Jays

Perhaps award two silvers, one bronze, and no gold to encourage striving?
Holding a jump-off would reveal who could persevere to jump the highest.

I doubt Olympic caliber athletes need lessons in striving.

[Davist]

Originally Posted by Blue Jays

Perhaps award two silvers, one bronze, and no gold to encourage striving?
Holding a jump-off would reveal who could persevere to jump the highest.

Exactly. glad everyone's heart is warmed, but isn't this the first step towards participation trophies?

[Ozz]

Originally Posted by Davist

Exactly. glad everyone's heart is warmed, but isn't this the first step towards participation trophies?

yes, everyone who participates and clears 2.37m gets a participation trophy!

Both missed all three attempts at 2.39m, so it is not like they didn't try to jump higher....

[bikerboy337]

Originally Posted by Ozz

yes, everyone who participates and clears 2.37m gets a participation trophy!

Both missed all three attempts at 2.39m, so it is not like they didn't try to jump higher....

To me this is the same as if 2 runners run 9.75 in the 100m dash, its a tie. Both jumpers were flawless through 2.37M, then neither could jump 2.39 and missed all attempts. At that point, they were the 2 best jumpers by far and were equal. They had a choice to either "share" and each win a gold for that performance, or continue competing with a jumpoff to see who can win gold and who get silver, to me that would be like asking the runners above to re-race the 100m to see who wins out in the second attempt... no one would do that, which is why in running they share the medal if the time is the same.

[AngryScientist]

Feel-Good BS IMO. It's a competition, why are the athletes allowed to decide to share the top spot? What's next BFF's hugging on the top step of the podium?

If anything i agree they should share the silver because neither of them "bested" the other.

[prototoast]

I don't feel good about this at all. The financial incentives are always in favor of athletes sharing gold medals, the whole point of the competition is that they can't. It's also bizarre to me that it is allowed in some circumstances, but not others.

In fencing, another Olympic sport I participated, in most competitions they follow a single elimination bracket, and award a tie for the bronze medal, rather than fence off for it separately. The Olympics are extremely stingy with the number of medals they give out, so for fencing in the Olympics, they must fence off for third place so only a single bronze is awarded. Sports are given very strict medal allocations, and it doesn't make sense how a sport could just conjure up a second gold medal.

And not that anybody really feels bad for Nike, but these are both Nike sponsored athletes, who almost certainly have large bonuses in their contracts for an Olympic gold medal, and these are presumably budgeted assuming you only have to give out one gold medal bonus per event.

It's just weird to me, and if you can do it for the high jump, why not do it for other events too?

[icepick_trotsky]

You guys must all be fun at parties.

This is an incredible moment in sport where two athletes at the peak of performance achieved an identical result. It's the equivalent of two swimmers touching the wall at the same hundreth of a second.

It's not like they decided in the moment to compete further. The rules were officially changed a few years ago so athletes can elect not to perform a jump off. They made a choice provided for by the official rules of the event.

[goonster]

Originally Posted by prototoast

It's just weird to me, and if you can do it for the high jump, why not do it for other events too?

Because the pole vault is the only other event where this exact scenario is possible.

[redir]

Maybe they should have just let them box it out. You know, since neither of these exceptionally talented and top of their sport athletes seem to be able to break the world record for gold just set up a good old boxing match and the first KO wins. Yeah that will do it!