US athlete Shelby McEwen has defended his determination to not settle for a shared gold medal at Paris 2024 which price him the prospect to be Olympic champion.
McEwen was competing within the males’s excessive soar ultimate on Saturday evening because the video games drew to a detailed and was tied in first place with New Zealand’s Hamish Kerr after clearing the two.36m soar.
Each then did not clear 2.38m and as that they had the identical variety of failed jumps they have been fully stage.
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In consequence, that they had two selections: share the gold medal between them or compete in a jump-off, with each agreeing on the latter.
It backfired on the American nonetheless, as he misplaced the jump-off and needed to accept the silver medal.
His determination to snub a shared gold divided followers on-line, as whereas some might respect eager to be an ‘outright champion’, others labelled the 28-year-old ‘loopy’.
However talking at a press convention on Sunday, the ultimate day of the video games, McEwen insisted he had no regrets, saying: ‘If it was meant to be it could’ve been.
‘Shout out to Hamish for coming as much as me, accepting a jump-off and I accepted it and I used to be all for it. I imply, hey, he received the gold and I received the silver.
‘On the finish of the day, like he stated it’s a sport. I imply I characterize my nation, similar to he’s representing his. I’m representing my household similar to he’s representing his.
‘On the finish of the day all of us need to be champions and the one respectful factor to do is stroll away with one champion.’
It was within the males’s excessive soar in Tokyo three years in the past that Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi and Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar discovered themselves in the identical state of affairs as McEwen and Kerr, however on that event they opted to share the gold in superb scenes.
‘I’ve a lot respect for what they did in Tokyo,’ Kerr stated when requested for his tackle the matter.
‘However I at all times thought that so as to add to the story and to have the ability to be given the prospect to really do the jump-off can be so superb. I knew right away that we have been going to make historical past and we did that.
‘I’m fairly positive Shelby was in the identical mindset as a result of we simply checked out one another and it was fairly easy. We each simply nodded and off we went.
‘We talked to one another, and he was like, “Let’s jump-off”. And I used to be like, “I’m all for it”.’
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