Barshim and Tamberi: Gold standard in sportsmanship

The camaraderie between Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshim and Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi continued during the Olympic men’s high jump victory ceremony on Monday, a day after the pair shared the gold medal. Both Barshim, 30, and the 29-year-old Tamberi ended with jumps of 2.37 metres and had no failed attempts until they attempted to clear 2.39. After three failures each at that height, an Olympic official first offered them a jump-off to decide the winner. “Can we have two golds?”, Barshim asked him. The official nodded, and the two athletes clasped hands and whooped for joy. Videos and pictures of the moment have gone viral on social media. After climbing on to the podium together, Barshim and Tamberi presented the gold medals to each other amid more hugs and switched places to face their flags when each national anthem was played. It was the first time since the 1912 Olympics that a gold medal was shared in athletics — in both pentathlon and decathlon at the Stockholm Games.