Why would McEwen and Kerr not choose to share the gold?

I commend whoever asked for the jump off. This is the olympics - athletes should go all out not settle for ties. The jump off loser is still silver medalist. Sharing a gold medal is more like being a silver medalist than gold because you're only tied for the best in the world.

Mckewen threw away a lot of guaranteed money available in the tie. and its not even a tie really, you won and gave it up. foolish.

Now we can talk about him as a competitive Silver medalist for the rest of his life instead of calling him an Olympic Gold medalist.

I guess that’s cooler?

prize money is small fries compared to sponsorships and appearance fees. They will pay him the difference and more to appear on some late night show.

Like most sports, I don't think a tie should be available at a championship. The jump off should be mandatory.

Not a great deal, needed that gold medal to beat CHYNA.

I can agree, generally, but then...

1) If the competitors decided they want to tie, they can just claim injuries and walk away with gold medals. You cannot compel them to jump.

2) In the event that a jump off is not mandatory, I really can't wrap my head around why anyone would opt to compete for something that they already have (a Gold medal) and risk losing it? There is no upside (except "respect" from some people, I guess?) and plenty of downside.

Tie shouldn't even be an option tbh

Just imagine: the 12 jumpers enter the stadium and claim they are injured and won't jump.

12 Gold Medals.

Ir let them choose to tie, but award them Silver Medals and leave the Gold vacanf

That's an interesting proposition.

The idea that 12 people would conspire is far fetched, so I'll skip that part, but as for the other idea...

What if you said that they are currently tied and you will be awarding Silver-Silver-Bronze, but after the tie-breaker you will award Gold-Silver-Bronze? That way they aren't standing to lose something, but rather to gain something?

I like that idea.

They would have to clear the starting height at least.

Media is reporting that it was McEwen that declined to take the tie and the gold medal.

Ya know... he's entitled to live his life and compete on his own terms, but that just seems like such a stupid decision to me...

I like McEwen, but he's fairly Jesus-y, as shown by the sign he flashed after he won silver. I can see him believing that God wanted him to jump to solo glory and not share it. He seemed magnanimous about the situation and not bitter. Though that's in the moment.

I don't understand why walking away with a tie is even an option. Can you imagine this happening in any other sport?

"And the Super Bowl is tied at the end of regulation. Both teams are walking off the field now. Everyone wins. See you next season, everyone!"

Lifetime value of being a gold medalist (instead of silver) is a LOT more than 50k

It’s not selfishness. He wanted to be outright champion. He’s trained his entire life for that moment and took it on.

American athletes can be insufferable, but that was not one of those moments. In fact, the opposite.

It took courage.

But if a sprint race ends in a dead heat (which sometimes happens in swimming, to the hundredth of a second) we declare it a tie and don't make them race again.

This could be considered more like a sprint race than like a team sport.

I give McEwen credit because he was nowhere close to clearing as Kerr was, yet he still wanted to go.

I don’t like the new rule. Sport is about winning and loosing. That’s the pure meaning. Society is getting to soft… ;-)

Yes, it took courage. It was also a bad decision, even before we saw how it played out. Kerr was the better jumper coming into the competition and had been clearing bars with more room above the bar today. McEwen needed a massive PB just to get to that point. So the odds were strong that Kerr would beat him in a jump-off. My heart sank as soon as I saw him make that call. McEwen will forever say that he doesn’t regret that decision, because he has to, but the reality is that he gave up SO much in that one moment.