Joint Olympic champions Gianmarco Tamberi and Mutaz Barshim set to square off once again 

At last year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo, two athletes captivated the world for their act of friendship.

Qatar’s Mutaz Barshim and Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi shared the men’s high jump gold medal with each deciding against a jump-off that would have split the podium. The result was the first athletics joint podium in more than a century.

But it wasn’t an act.

The duo have been friends for more than a decade.

“We looked at each other, and we didn't even think about what it was correct to do in that moment. There was a feeling pushing us to do it. We did it,” explained Tamberi in an exclusive interview with Olympics.com in Eugene, Oregon, prior to the 2022 World Track and Field Championships where the two will face off again.

“We are great friends and we've been great friends since 2010 and I've been in his wedding, and he will be my wedding,” he continued. “In that moment with a friend, you can't have another decision and people see, felt that there was something true behind that. So that's why everybody was so entertained by that moment because it looks like really a true moment and that's what it was for us.”

“This is beyond sport,” Barshim said at the time, according to the Associated Press. “This is the message we deliver to the young generation.”

READ MORE: World Athletics Championships day-by-day

Friends off the track; rivals on it

The two are set to face off again in Eugene with Tamberi the top-ranked higher jump coming into the event.

And while Barshim is ranked outside the top 50, they are tied in terms of best marks in 2022 at fourth.

In Eugune, Barshim, who won Olympic silvers at London 2012 and Rio 2016, will be gunning for his third, consecutive world title after taking the top spot in 2017 and 2019.

That sets up a compelling rematch – and one they’ve become quite accustomed to.

“We are big friends, but we are also our opponents. We know that we are going to compete every single time versus one another, we are not in a team sport, but it doesn't affect our relationship,” explained Tamberi. “Everybody's trying to do his best in this competition and win and get the gold medal. But it doesn't mean that we want the other to jump less. So, I wish him to jump the best he can. I wish me to jump the one centimetre higher so that I can beat him.”

READ MORE: World Athletics Championships preview

Once is enough

That competitive nature doesn’t mean he regrets sharing the Olympic title in Tokyo.

It’s quite the opposite, with Tamberi relishing having shared a once-in-a-lifetime moment with Barshim.

“With that, we spent, I think, the best moment of our lives together, and I would never regret that decision. I think, he [wouldn’t] either,” Tamberi said.

Still, they’re happy to keep it to once-in-a-lifetime.

“But of course, we say to each other that if it will happen again, we would go on. But just because we did it once not because we were not happy with what we had done,” the Italian said. "If I have to go back in that day, I will never change my mind.”