Essa Barshim, the story of the Qatari who won three golds in a row in the high jump and beat Cuban Javier Sotomayor

The World Cup in Athletics left this Monday a new story of personal improvement. As happened over the weekend with Shelly Ann Fraser Pryce’s fifth world title in the 100m, now it is Mutaz Essa Barshim the one who writes great history and continues to earn the label of legend.

The 31-year-old from Qatar, Olympic champion in Tokyo 2021 in an image that went down in history after sharing the first place with the Italian Gianmarco Tamberi, has become the first athlete to become high jump champion in three different world championships. He joined him consecutively in London 2017, Doha 2019 and Eugene 2022 and surpassed the legendary Cuban Javier Sotomayorwho was crowned twice.

He hung the gold with 2.37 meters, overcoming all the heights he tried in his first jump until he failed in 2.42. The second was the South Korean Sanghyeok-woo with 2.35 (national record), while the bronze was scored by the Ukrainian Andriy Protsenko with 2.33. Tamberisporting his characteristic half-shaved beard, he reached the same milestone, but on the second attempt, finishing fourth.

The story of an athlete who climbs seven podiums between the World and Olympic Games, as well as various major successes in national and continental championships, seems to be that of a child prodigy called to assert himself from the beginning, but this is not his case. He had to fight to become the national idol he is today.

His beginnings in athletics show him as a middle distance runner, thanks to the influence of his father, who in his time worked in this type of events. And he also got to try the long jump. However, At the age of 15, he realized that high jumping was indeed his passion. Born as a hobby, it gradually became his profession.

The Polish Stanislaw Szczyrba he was the first to see all his talent and helped him maximize it. “He came to me after seeing me play basketball with friends and said, ‘Look, that jump you took to get to the basket is Olympic-level,'” the athlete recalled.

Szczyrba is his current coach, who at the time was invited to Doha in his role as a coach to see a group of athletes and was impressed with Barshim. “You have a lot of talent and you should use it. You could be a champion”he said to the teenager. And he wasn’t wrong.

In any case, the memories of those first races in which he decided to take up athletics as a job are not good. “I didn’t feel like a special person. Up until the age of 17 I was always the worst. There were a lot of guys who were better than me, but my father always told me to keep working hard, to be patient, that would have made a difference. “, Qatar said. And so, with that mindset, he went through the process.

The results came quickly. In 2010, first at the World Junior Championships in Moncton, Canada, and then at the Asian Games in Guangzhou, China, she achieved her first victories on the big stage, jumping 2.30 meters. From there, she began accumulating success after success and dreamed of winning an Olympic game. That gold medal that was denied him in London 2012, where he got the bronze, and Rio 2016 (silver), ended up arriving in Tokyo 2021.

Qatar is not a country with a tradition in track and field, but quite the opposite, that’s why Barshim is seen as a national idol. He is a star that fans stop on the street to take pictures and is often invited to different events and interviews on TV channels.

In a country of 2.8 million inhabitants, of which the vast majority are nationalized, the fact that he was born in Doha gave him an advantage to understand its enormous popularity. He is part of the scarce 10% of Qataris born in the Qatari territory. The rest, for the most part, are naturalized citizens and immigrants.

Another of the great milestones of his career was in June 2014, during the Diamond League which took place in Brussels, Belgium, when he set his best historical score and Asian record (2.43 mt.)remaining just two centimeters from the world record of Xavier Sotomayor.In the midst of a career that seems to have no unfinished business, exceeding 2.45 for the Cuban would be the icing on the cake. And dream it.

In an interview released in April of that year, months before the Diamond League, his coach was convinced when he said it. “He can jump 2.50 meters, the great goal we have set for ourselves in the long term”. Meanwhile, he continues to write history, which is already that of an athletics legend.