How did two Olympians tie for gold at the Tokyo Olympics?

History has been made on the ninth day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics as high jumpers Gianmarco Tamberi from Italy and Muta Essa Barshim of Qatar tied for gold.

How did that happen? Both athletes scored perfect until the bar was positioned at 2.39 meters-high, which is actually an Olympic record.

Tamberi and Barshim both failed three times to beat the record-breaking height. So, they were up for a jump-off to break the tie.

However, when they talked to a track official, Barshim asked if they could share the gold medal and the official said it was possible.

Both athletes agreed to not settle the tie and share to gold instead and the rest as they say is history.

Bronze medalist Maksim Nedasekau of Belarus with gold medalists Muta Essa Barshim and Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy / Source: @#Tokyo2020 (Twitter)

The two celebrated their shared win, with Tamberi clearly more emotional as he was once told that he may never be able to compete again after suffering a serious ankle injury weeks before the Rio Olympics in 2016.

When Tamberi celebrated his shared gold win with opponent and friend Barshim, he even held his ankle cast that had the words “Road to Tokyo 2021” with “2020” crossed out after its postponement last year.

“I still can't believe it happened,” Tamberi said in a statement. “Sharing with a friend is even more beautiful. … It was just magical.”

Barshim clearly has the same sentiment and even emphasized that they both deserved the historic win.

“For me, coming here, I know for a fact that for the performance I did, I deserve that gold,” Barshim underlined. “He did the same thing, so I know he deserved that gold.”

The high jumper from Qatar also noted that they want to show the younger people what true sportsmanship means, that sometimes winning a friend is as important as winning the gold.

“This is beyond sport,” Barshim said. “This is the message we deliver to the young generation.”

Aside from Tamberi and Barshim, another happy and victorious high jumper in the same event is Maksim Nedasekau of Belarus, who won a bronze medal.

He also cleared the height of 2.37 meters, just like Tamberi and Barshim, but had more failed attempts so he took the third spot.

Nevertheless, Nedasakau has a couple of reasons to celebrate because not only did he win an Olympic bronze medal, but he also set a national record.

Back in 2016, a similar instance of a gold tie also happened when Simone Manuel of the USA and Penny Oleksiak of Canada tied for gold in the women's 100-meter freestyle event.

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