Qatar's Barshim creates history

Until that gold-medal moment he shared, Qatar’s Mutaz Barshim wasn’t used to getting much attention outside of the track and field stadium.

In the Japan National Stadium last Sunday, Barshim and Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy both missed all three attempts at clearing the Olympic-record height of 2.39 meters. They had been perfect in the competition until then.

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.

"I look at him, he looks at me, and we know it. We just look at each other and we know, that is it, it is done. There is no need," Barshim said.

Now Barshim is getting approached in Tokyo streets by people who were touched by how the Olympic high jump competition finished with two men sharing the title.

“This Japanese lady, she came up to me and she was like, ‘I’m so happy. You made me cry,’” the Qatari high jumper told The Associated Press. “Everyone has been telling me how much of a historic moment it was. The impact is definitely huge.”

Qatar’s emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani was on the phone to Barshim shortly after winning gold.

“He told me that what I did was a great thing, sharing the gold with my Italian friend,” the Doha-born Barshim said. “He said that this will go down in history if God wishes.”