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SAINT-DENIS, France – At the end of the more than two-hour men’s high jump competition on Saturday, the two competitors tied for first place faced a life-changing decision.

Did they want to share the Olympic gold? Or did they want to compete in a play-off to determine the overall winner?

Hamish Kerr, a 27-year-old New Zealander, had discussed this exact scenario with his team after a training session three or four months ago. Someone asked Kerr if he would share the gold, like his best friends Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy and Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar did in Tokyo three years ago.

While acknowledging that sportsmanship is “something very special to the sport,” Kerr told his team that he preferred to “contribute to the history of the sport in a different way than has been done before.” That day, he decided that if he were ever in that position, he would compete for gold in the jump-off.

“I would have been so proud if I had finished second in a jump-off,” Kerr said. “Honestly, probably prouder than if I had shared the gold medal.”

American Shelby McEwen, 28, had never been faced with the decision of whether to compete in the jump-off before Saturday, nor had he spent any time thinking about how he would handle that scenario if it came to it. Exhausted and with heavy legs, but also desperate to win, McEwen was open to both options as he and Kerr chatted briefly next to the high jump pit.

“Let’s jump,” Kerr said.

“I’m all for it,” McEwen replied.

And just like that, it was decided.

“I might have told him, but he wanted the piercing and I agreed,” McEwen said. “I didn’t want to go back and forth and argue with him.”

Kerr won the jump-off, with the ‘Flying Kiwi’ clearing the bar at 2.34 metres after both he and McEwen failed attempts at 2.38 and 2.36. Knowing he had won, an exhausted Kerr summoned all his energy, leapt to his feet and sprinted across the Stade de France turf to celebrate New Zealand’s first high jump medal.

“If I hadn’t made that jump or another one very soon, we’d probably still be out there,” Kerr joked more than an hour later.

Despite losing the gold medal, McEwen showed no sign of regret. He was happy with his personal best jump of 2.36 metres before the jump-off and the silver medal around his neck.

“I didn’t get gold, but I’m grateful for what I got,” McEwen said.

Ten years before he competed for high jump gold at the Paris Olympics, McEwen was known for his leaping ability in another sport. The then-teenager won the Jordan Brand’s “First to Fly” dunk contest in Las Vegas in 2014 by taking off from the free throw, soaring through the air and finishing with an explosive one-handed dunk.

A native of Abbeville, Mississippi, McEwen grew up doing flips on hay bales, trampolines and anything else he could find. He did his first dunk at the end of seventh grade, and by eighth grade he was dunking at games.

Although McEwen experimented with the high jump for a year in high school and won the Mississippi state championship, he considered himself a basketball player at the time. It wasn’t until his basketball career stalled at Northwest Mississippi Community College that he began to pursue the high jump again.

Competing as an independent athlete, meaning he did not represent his school, McEwen defeated high jumpers with college scholarships and years of practice. That caught the attention of a number of college coaches and put him on course to compete for high jump gold on the Olympic stage at the Stade de France.

McEwen has long since given up on the idea of ​​playing in the NBA, but there is one dream in basketball that he finds hard to give up completely.

McEwen says with a smile: “If the NBA ever wants to send me to the dunk contest, I’m in.”