Paris Olympics preview: high jump

Men's high jump

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• Gianmarco Tamberi jumped a world lead of 2.37m to win European gold but then picked up an injury
• Fellow defending Olympic champion Mutaz Barshim has had a low-key build up to the Games
• Hamish Kerr won his first global title at the World Indoors and is now looking for another

All is uncertain in the men’s high jump as the Paris Olympic Games approach.

Olympic champion Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy produced the biggest leap of the year, 2.37m, to win his third consecutive European title in Rome in June, but announced three weeks ago that he had sustained a minor thigh injury and would need at least a week off to receive treatment.

As he informed the world of his situation in an Instagram post, he was both emotional and defiant.

“Nobody in history has ever fulfilled the dream of winning two golds (in the high jump) in this damn event and I swear that, despite this setback, I will continue to do everything I can to be the first to succeed,” he said. “It won't be easy, I know. But objectively I ask myself: what has been easy in my career? I swear it doesn’t end here.”

The presence of a large and raucous crowd at the Stade de France will certainly enhance his prospects, as will the fact that he served as the Italian team’s flagbearer in Paris. No one uses the energy of the crowd to extract best performance better than the extrovert Italian.

The man he famously shared the gold medal with in Tokyo, Qatar’s Mutaz Barshim, has issues of his own. He withdrew from the last major competition before the Games, at the London Diamond League meeting, just moments before the event began, while standing on the track.

Barshim has yet to show his best form this year, with a highest jump of 2.31m so far, which opens the door for other contenders.

New Zealand’s world indoor champion Hamish Kerr has been the most consistent competitor this year, clearing 2.36m to win his first global title in Glasgow, and backing up with wins in Monaco (2.33m) and London (2.30m) on the road into Paris.

He fell short of reaching the World Championships final in Budapest last year, but he rebounded with a 2.33m win in Zurich 11 days later. Since then, he has developed considerable momentum and belief at the highest level.

Nicknamed the ‘Flying Kiwi’, after New Zealand’s famously flightless national bird, Kerr will be his country’s best gold medal hope in athletics.

“My jumping is feeling so good at the moment,” he said after London. “Overall, I'm really happy with my performance and I know I'm in really good shape going into the Games.”

But the rest of the event has yet to catch fire this year. Only seven men have registered clearances above 2.30m.

Apart from Tamberi, Kerr and Barshim, they include world silver medallist JuVaughn Harrison (2.34m), fellow US jumper Shelby McEwen (2.33m) and Korea’s 2022 world indoor champion Woo Sanghyeok (2.33m), another showman who rises in front of an audience.

Only one thing is certain: Tamberi and Barshim will not share the gold this year. They have already agreed that if they were tied again in Paris, they would do a jump-off this time to decide the ultimate winner.

 

Women's high jump

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• Recent world record of 2.10m makes Yaroslava Mahuchikh the outstanding favourite
• Mahuchikh was also the favourite at the World Indoor Championships, but Nicola Olyslagers claimed gold
• Serbian teenager Angelina Topic could spring a surprise on her Olympic debut

The last time that Yaroslava Mahuchikh came to Paris, she jumped higher than any woman in history, setting a world record of 2.10m at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in June, which stamped her as the outright favourite for the Olympic gold medal in the French capital.

The Ukrainian world champion, who has become a source of inspiration to her people since Russia invaded her country in 2022, is jumping for more than personal glory these days and it shows.

The Olympic bronze medallist in Tokyo, when she was just 19, she has steadily worked her way to the top of her event in the past three years.

In that period, the 2021 Olympic champion Maria Lasitskene has been mostly absent, a victim of her country’s invasion of its neighbour. The Russian Federation remains suspended from World Athletics so she will not have the opportunity to defend her title in Paris.

But the younger Mahuchikh has gone to another level in that time. She had already set a personal best of 2.07m in Paris, before raising the bar to 2.10m.

Reflecting on that “incredible jump”, Mahuchikh said she considered not continuing after her success at 2.07m to ensure that she did not injure herself before the Olympics.

“My coach told me that maybe I should stop because of the Olympic Games coming up – of course that is more important,” she said. “But I felt inside I could do it, and, to be honest, I wanted to try the world record. And I did it at my first attempt.

“I am looking forward to the Olympic Games here. I am sure it will be a great competition, and even better atmosphere – but I know it will be hard, and will be very competitive,” she added. “A major event like the Olympics, you really need to be mentally strong, and like my coach says, it is a celebration and you should definitely enjoy it.”

Before that stunning leap in Paris, the women’s high jump was shaping as a contest between the three most consistent global performers of the past three years – Mahuchikh, Olympic silver medallist and world indoor champion Nicola Olyslagers and 2022 world champion Eleanor Patterson.

Now the two Australians know that they will have to reach new heights to if Mahuchikh can reproduce this level in the Olympic final.

Olyslagers was out of the gates quickly this year, clearing a personal best of 2.03m in January and following up with her first global title at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow in March.

She sustained a minor injury which disrupted her preparation temporarily in June but confirmed her medal credentials with a 2.01m clearance for second place behind Mahuchikh in Paris on her return to competition.

Patterson has made a slower start to her campaign and has yet to clear 2.00m this year (best of 1.95m), but is a proven big event competitor. She came off a long injury lay-off to earn the silver medal at the World Championships in Budapest last year, backing up her victory in Oregon a year earlier. 

The two Australians have one of the longest-standing rivalries in athletics, having first competed against each other at the 2009 Australian All Schools Championships when they were 12 and 13.

But there are bigger stakes than their domestic rivalry in Paris. Both are determined to be on the podium.

The other two-metre jumpers who could come into calculations are Jamaica’s Lamara Distin and USA’s Rachel Glenn, both of whom cleared 2.00m indoors this year.

Angelina Topic, who turned 19 on the day of the Olympic opening ceremony, is another who could bid for the medals. The Serbian – who is coached by her father Dragutin, the 1990 European high jump champion – took European silver earlier this year, upgrading the bronze she earned in 2022 at the age of 17. More recently she equalled her national record of 1.98m to finish third behind Mahuchikh and Olyslagers in Paris.

The prodigious youngster is improving rapidly, which could make her dangerous as she makes her Olympic debut.

Nicole Jeffery for World Athletics