Mutaz Barshim and the art of the high jump: “A great artist really knows how to craft the colours”

The reigning Olympic champion explained the intricacies and beauty of the high jump as he prepares to compete in the final of the 2023 Asian Games. 

4 minBy Sean McAlister
Mutaz Barshim

(2022 Getty Images)

To an untrained eye, the idea of adding a single centimetre to your personal best in a sport like high jump may seem like a simple task.

Train harder, train better… practice makes perfect, they may say.

But Olympic high jump gold medallist Mutaz Barshim, who knows more than almost anyone the challenges of competing in a sport where victory and defeat are often decided by those minuscule margins, paints a far different story.

“Each centimetre is like going to hell and back,” the athletics star said in a recent interview with Indian Express before the ongoing Asian Games where he hopes to bring home gold for Qatar.

At 32 years old, Barshim has won everything there is to win in his sport, including two Asian Games titles, three World Championships golds and a famous Olympic title that he so memorably shared with Italian friend and rival Gianmarco Tamberi at Tokyo 2020.

However, to reach the giddy heights he has in a sport where he is the second-highest jumper in history, Barshim looks at high jump in the manner of a painter staring down at a blank canvas before embarking on a masterpiece.

“A great artist knows how to really craft the colours, absorb the picture he’s looking at or has in his mind to put it down on a canvas,” he says. “He knows precisely the right amount of everything needed to create the final beauty of a product. For me, that’s similar to high jump.”

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Mutaz Barshim: “The level that we jump is not normal”

Interestingly, Barshim’s description of the art of the high jump rarely focus on words related to the sport. 

He refers to the run-up to the jump as “dribbling”, almost as if he is a slaloming footballer or a basketball player weaving his way to create a scoring opportunity. 

But the final result can only be a success if all of the elements are in place.

“It’s like a craft. It takes a long time (to master) but the final product is going to be something that’s particularly amazing and high quality,” Barshim says. “I have been doing this for many years, that’s the key.”

During those years, Barshim has gone on to leap higher than almost anyone on earth. Anyone, that is, other than Cuba’s Javier Sotomayor who has produced two jumps at a greater height than the Qatari, at 2.44 and 2.45 metres. 

Barshim has 10 jumps over 2.40 metres and is aware that whether it's due to artistry or just sheer brilliance those sorts of numbers put him in a league few can ever follow. 

“You know, we talk about this like normal, but the level that we jump is not normal,” he says. “If you look at the people that actually jump 2.40-plus several times, I think it’s only me and Soto. And how many billion people live on this earth?”

Barshim on foregoing the Diamond League final to compete in the 2023 Asian Games: “I am a different high jumper now’

Barshim’s 2023 has been one of highs and, perhaps for his standards, a handful of lows.

At the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, he finished the competition with bronze, the first of four editions since 2017 in which he had not taken top spot on the podium.

However, the 2023 Asian Games, which he chose to compete in after choosing not to participate in last month’s Diamond League finals in Eugene, offer an opportunity to end the year on a high and give him the best possible preparation for next year’s Olympic Games in Paris.

"For me, the Asian Games are important. You see these vibes, it's like our Olympics before the Olympics," he told AFP.

"Eugene? I am not saying it's not important, it's about having different priorities now. "For me, it was too much travel and I am a different high jumper now. I have three Diamond (League) trophies. Adding a fourth would have been great, but it's not my top priority at the moment so I decided to skip that."

While Barshim is expected to shine in Hangzhou, where the Asian Games are hosted this year, he will face stiff competition from another rising star of high jump, with Republic of Korea’s **Sanghyeok Woo **'the recently-crowned Diamond League champion and 2022 World Championships silver medallist also competing in People’s Republic of China.

However, while the 27-year-old San-Hyeok has been consistently strong in the competitions that matter, he will need to be at his very best to beat Barshim who has been “to hell and back” for every one of the eight centimetres that separate his personal best from that of the Korean’s.

You can follow Mutaz Barshim in the 2023 Asian Games men’s high jump final on Wednesday 4 October.

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