High jump legend Mutaz Barshim ends Olympic career with bronze medal at Paris 2024

Qatari great shows his enduring class despite failing to defend title he won in Tokyo

Men's high jump bronze medalist Mutaz Barshim of Qatar waves on the podium. AP

Follow the latest news on the 2024 Paris Olympics

Old wasn't quite gold for the Qatari high jump legend Mutaz Barshim but he ensured his Olympic career still ended in its rightful place – on the podium – with a bronze medal in Paris on Saturday night.

Barshim, 33, the elder statesman of the showpiece and an all-time great of track and field, began the final troubled by a calf injury sustained in qualifying yet was still able to conjure some magic as it looked for a time like he might defend the gold medal he won in Tokyo.

As it transpired, he was out-jumped by eventual winner Hamish Kerr of New Zealand and runner-up Shelby McEwen of the USA - both six years his junior - but the reverence he commands was underlined as his competitors stopped to applaud as he bowed out of the title hunt after failing to clear 2.38 metres at the Stade de France.

Barshim, who became the first high jumper to medal at four Olympics, had cruised through the opening jumps as the bar edged ever higher. His first failure came at 2.36m, quickly followed by a second.

With Kerr and McEwen both going clear, he passed at a third attempt, instead opting for one final crack at glory.

With the bar at 2.38m - one centimetre higher than his winning mark from Tokyo but well below his personal best of 2.43m - he roused the Paris crowd, but it wasn't to be as he clipped the bar before bouncing back up in typically positive manner.

A silver medallist in London and Rio, a champion in Tokyo, and now a bronze winner in Paris, Barshim is an Olympic great, a fact evidenced by the respect shown to him by his rivals. The Qatari, also a triple world champion, has already said he will not compete in Los Angeles in 2028, and a podium finish was a farewell befitting of an athlete whose legacy is already secured.

With the legend out of the running, Kerr clinched gold after a dramatic jump-off with McEwen.

Whereas Barshim and his friend and rival Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy agreed to share gold in Tokyo, Kerr and McEwen chose to battle it out for supremacy.

They had both managed bests of 2.36m in regular competition, but could not be separated on countback of missed jumps. With the pressure mounting the bar was lowered to 2.34m. When McEwen missed his attempt, world indoor champion Kerr had his chance and took it with aplomb.

"I was just in shock. Both me and Shelby were getting a little bit tired after all the jumps we took," said Kerr.

"I knew I had a good one in me, and I knew that if I could get it up sooner rather than later, then I could just finish the comp and start recovering."

On the decision to proceed with the jump-off rather than follow the precedent set by Barshim and Tamberi, Kerr added: "That has such a special place in history for high jumps. To have an exact same scenario this time around, but to choose to do the jump-off, was putting at peace some of those people who wanted to jump-off, so we're both really happy to add to that history."

The discussion Kerr and McEwen shared with officials was short and to the point: both athletes wanted to continue, there was to be no shared gold.

"High jump is always a rollercoaster, there's always guys who will miss and then clear, and then miss," Kerr said.

"The big thing that we've been working on personally, and me and my team, is it's not over until it's over.

"In the past, I probably got into the habit of watching those guys a little bit, whereas now I wouldn't even know what's going on, I just focus on myself."